


TEXAS HIGH SCHOOLS 



ENGLISH 



ANNIE WEBB BLANTON 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction 

HALLIE JAMESON 

Supervisor of Public High Schools 




BULLETIN 145 JANUARY. 1922 



ISSUED BY 

THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

STATE OF TEXAS 



^e:m^ 



TEXAS HIGH SCHOOLS 



ENGLISH 



ANNIE WEBB BLANTON 

State Superintendent of Public Instruction 

HALLIE JAMESON 

Supervisor of Public High Schools 




BULLETIN 145 



JANUARY, 1922 



ISSUED BY 

THE ^DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 
STATE OF TEXAS 



A29-1000 



Annie Webb Blanton, State Superintendent of Public Instruction 






THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. 

TON, State Superintendent of 

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATION 

S. M. N. Marks, First Assistant Superintendent 
Mary Jo Popplewell, Second Assistant Superintendent 
Mrs. Ella F. Little, Third Assistant Superintendent 

division of high school supervision 

Katherine Gray, Chief Supervisor 

Gordon Damon, Hallie Jaiieson, W. B. Mikesell, J. H. Wisely, Mrs. R. L. 

Bagsdale, Charles M. Rogers, Susan Miles 

division of rural schools 

L. D. Borden, Chief Supervisor 

W. H. Bowman, S. E. Clark. John T. Conn, W. E. James, T. A. Fisher, 

Guy T. McBride, J. S. Rasco, Carrie Bell Sterrett, 

Georgie Walker, Selby Attweli 

division of negro schools 
L. W. Rogers 

division of vocational education 

C. L. Davis, Di/rector of Agriculture 

J. H. Hinds, Assistant Director of Agriculture 

J. B. Rutland, Assistant Director of Agriculture 

Jessie Harris, Director of Home Economics 

Lillian Peek. Assistant Director of Home Economics 

N. S. HuNSDON, Director of Industrial Education 

Lizzie Barbour, Assistant Director of Industrial Education 

DIVISION OF STATISTICS 

Mrs. J. B. Gay, Statistician 

DIVISION of audits AND ACCOUNTS 

Amy V. Allen, Auditor 
Meta Huppertz, Assistant 

division of CERTIFICATION OF TEACHERS 

Al:m.\ Boothe, Certificate Clerk 
J. F. Oglesby, Assistant. 

DIVISION OF text BOOK ADMINISTRATION 

Minnie Lee Barrett, Director 

L. S. Thrift, A. S. Thweatt, 0. P. Basford, Randolph Warren, 

Anne Rutherford, Bob Henderson 

DIVISION of correspondence AND SUPPLIES 

Marguerite ^NIcHenry, Correspondence Clerk 

Waldo Green, Filing Clerk 

Anne McDonald, Kittie M. Shands, Royall Calder, Annie Steussy, Irma 

Johnson, ]\Iinnie Nowlin, Lola Kneip, M. M. Haberle, 

Mrs. M. Downing, T. Y. Collins 

Stenographers 

STATE BOARD OF EXAMINERS 

Emma Mitchell, Chairman 
Roberta Matthews J. R. Reid 

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION 

Pat M. Neff, Governor, Chairman 
S. L. Staples, Secretary of State 

— — " •'ixnr^.' Saiith, Comptroller 

IASSAB^Webb Blanton, Secretary 

pec: , : 



JUN7 192-2 . . 



STATE INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING 

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 
Austin, Texas 
R. E. Vinson, President E. J. Mathews, Registrar 

AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE 
College Station, Texas 
W. B. BizzELL, Presidejit Chas. E. Feeley, Registrar 

COLLEGE OF INDUSTRIAL ARTS 
Denton, Texas 
F. M. Bkalley, President VValkeb King, Registrar 

SAM HOUSTON NORMAL INSTITUTE 
Huntsville, Texas 
H. F. Estill, President Bknnette Wallin, Secretary 

NORTH TEXAS STATE NORMAL COLLEGE 
Denton, Texas 
W. H. Bruce, President A. C. McGinnis, Registrar 

SOUTHWEST TEXAS STATE NORMAL COLLEGE 
San Marcos, Texas 
C. E. Evans, President C. E. Ferguson, Registrar 

WEST TEXAS STATE NORMAL COLLEGE 
Canyon, Texas 
J. A. Hill, President John L. Humphries, Secretary 

EAST TEXAS STATE NORMAL COLLEGE 
Commerce, Texas 
R. B. BiNNiON, President L. I. Smith, Secretary 

SUL ROSS NORMAL COLLEGE 
Alpine, Texas 
R. L. Marquis, President Viola Baker. Registrar 

GRUBBS VOCATIONAL COLLEGE 
Arlington, Texas 
W. B. BizzELL, President , M. L. Williams, Bean 

JOHN TARLETON AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
Stephen ville, Texas 
W. B. BizzELL, President J. Thomas Davis, Dean 

STATE SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND 
Austin, Texas 
E. E. Bramlette, Superintendent and Secretary 
TEXAS SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF 
Austin, Texas 
Dr. F. B. Shufoed, Superintendent T. V. Archer, Registrar 
STATE ORPHANS' HOME 
Corsicana, Texas 
Odie Minatra, Superintendent Aaron Ferguson, Secretary 

TEXAS STATE TRAINING SCHOOL FOR GIRLS 

Gainesville, Texas 

Dr. Carrie Weaver Smith. Superintendent 

STATE JUVENILE TRAINING SCHOOL 

Gatesville. Texas 

J. W. Cantwell, Superintendent John E. McDonald, Accountant 

STATE SCHOOL FOR FEEBLE-MINDED 

Austin, Texas 

Dr. J. W. Bbadfield, Superintendent 

PRAIRIE VIEW STATE NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL COLLEGE 

(For Colored Youth) 

Prairie View, Texas 

J. G. Osborne, President 

DEAF, DUIVIB AND BLIND INSTITUTE . FOR COLORED YOUTHS 

Austin, Texas 

R. E. L. Holland, Superintendent 



COMMITTEE ON CLASSIFIED AND ACCREDITED HIGH SCHOOLS FOR 
THE BIENNIUM ENDING JANUARY 1, 1921 

Annie Webb Blanton, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chairman 

E. J. Mathews, University of Texas, Austin 

C. E. Fbiley, Agricultural and Mechanical College, College Station 

Walker King, College of Industrial Arts, Denton 

C. A. Nichols, Southern Methodist University, Dallas 

C. E. Evans, Southwest Texas State Normal College, San Marcos 

G. F. Winfield, Wesley College, Greenville 

B. B. Cobb, Superintendent City Schools, Waco 

A. L. Day, Superintendent City Schools, Commerce 

L. J. Beeey, Superintendent City Schools. Piano 

L. V. Stockaed, Principal Bryan Street High School, Dallas 

Nat Benton, Superintendent Nueces County Schools, Corpus Christi 

SUPERVISORS 
Katherine Gray, Chief Supervisor 

Gordon Damon, Chas. M. Rogers, 

Hallie Jameson, Susan Miles, 

W. B. Mikesell, J. H. Wisely 
Mrs. R. L. Ragsdale, 



PREFACE 



He was a little Italian boy from the eighth grade, and his black eyes 
were very earnest as he stood before his audience of a ninth gTade 
mathematics class, where he had been sent to make a four-minute ad- 
dress on "The Importance of Better Speech." It Avas Better Speech 
Week in the high school of a Texas coast town, and, as a part of the 
week's program, members of the English classes were to make four- 
minute talks in. the various classrooms of the school. To some of the 
students the task was not difficult. To this boy, the tongue of the 
members of this schoolroom was not that of his home, nor yet that 
which he knew on the streets ;' but there were principles expressed in his 
speech that every teacher of .voung Americans might well bear in mind 
and put into action. * * * "We must be same kind of Americans 
in our talk that we are in here" (pointing to his heart). * * * 
"The laws of our country are written in the English language. If we 
are to understand our laws, we must understand our language right. 
Our language must be kept just as pure as our flag is kept. A country 
that is worth sending our young men over the seas to die for, is worth 
learnino- the lansfuasfe of." 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 9 

Outline by Grades 12 

Written Composition 38 

Oral Composition 47 

Literature 57 

The Situation in Texas 63 

Suggested Library List 69 



ENGLISH IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS 



INTRODUCTION 



In order to aid in the correlation of the work of the high schools of 
this state with that of the universities and with the work of other high 
schools, it is desirable that all of the high schools of Texas should 
folloAV the §ame outline of subject matter at as nearly the same time 
as possible. 

For the arrangement of the subject matter according to grades, the 
compiler of this bulletin has depended largely upon the Eeport of the 
National Committee on Eeorganization of English in the Secondary 
Schools, which report is published in full under the title of "Bulletin, 
1917, No. 2, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, Wash- 
ington, D. C.," and which may be had by sending twenty cents to the 
above address. A copy of Bulletin, 1917, Xo. 3, should be on the desk 
of every teacher of English in Texas. In the use of this bulletin con- 
siderable adaptation of the "Work by Grades" was necessary, since many 
states have twelve grades in their public schools, while Texas has only 
eleven; but in so far as possible, the content of the course of each of 
the high school grades conforms to the accepted standards as set forth 
by the members of the famous committee appointed by the National 
Educational Association to reorganize the English course for the high 
schools of the United States. If this adapted course should be care- 
fully followed by all teachers of high school English in Texas, children 
will be able to transfer from one school to another Avith the mininnnn 
loss of progTess. 

An outline of the aims, material, and methods in English for each of 
the four grades of the High School may assist the English teachers of 
the state in correlating their courses with each other, and with life on 
the one hand, and the universities on the other, through some other 
method than by dividing the text book into a certain number of pages; 
for each course. The following outline of the various grades is care- 
fully adapted from the Worlc hy Grades of the "Report of the Com- 
mission on Composition." Adaptation for the composition work was 
worked out with Herri ck and Damon as the text, allowing for the 
eighth grade, Parts I, II, III, and IV, with a brief review of the prin- 
ciples of unity, coherence, variety, and emphasis of sentences, and with 
the omission of manv of the exercises of the first six chapters and of 
the longer exercises of some of the other chapters; for the ninth grade, 
the work includes a review of the first seven chapters, a reference to 
chapters on sentence structure when necessary, an intensive review of 
all the chapters on words, a review of punctuation, an intensive study 
of the chapter on letter-writing, and an intensive study of the paragraph, 
its structure, and its relation to the theme as a whole. The ninth grade 
teacher should take up for special study any subject of rhetoric and 



—10— 

composition in which the chiss is weak. It is quite possible for the 
ninth grade to cover the whole book, leaving for least emphasis those 
chapters or subjects in which the class seems to have attained an 
efficient working knowledge. Tenth and eleventh grade classes should 
use Herrick and Damon as a guide or as a reference book when ques- 
tions in composition and rhetoric arise. Thorough familiarity with the 
outline and index of the subject matter should make reference to any 
subject easy and convenient. 

Examine with the class the text book that is to be studied. It may not 
meet with your approval, but nothing is to be gained by destroying 
your pupils' confidence in the state adopted text book. You should, of 
course, supijlement the text wherever you deem this necessary, as it is 
the subject, and not a text that you are to teach. 

The outline of the Herrick and Damon text is particularly good, and 
may be used for lessons on outline. But its greatest value lies in its 
indexing of subject matter. The teacher of eighth grade classes may 
interest her young students in their text book by comparing it to a 
watch which falls into the hands of a small boy — or, indeed, of a grown 
boy. He looks at it from the outside for the first few days, and wonders 
a great deal about it as a whole. (The first _six chapters of Herrick 
and Damon are like the case of the watch.) When the boy's curiosity 
has gained the upper hand, he takes off the case and begins tinkering 
with what is inside. His method is wholly analytical. He is soon 
tearing it to pieces. The watch is so constructed that it falls, first into 
larger units of structure, then into smaller, and finally into particles. 
These units corresjDond to paragraphs, sentences, and words. As the 
paragraphs are ripped apart, their topic sentences, their lengths, their 
relation to the heading, etc., are discussed. The sentences ' are dis- 
cussed, the most common gTammatical errors are analyzed in the order 
of the parts of speech which go to make up the sentence, and the punc- 
tuation of the sentence is observed. Then the unit of the whole struc- 
ture is examined — the word. From page 221 to page 314, words are 
studied. There are strong words and weak words; words full of color 
and drah words; melodious words and harsh words; words of Latin 
'Origin and Anglo-Saxon words; words with root, prefix, and suffix, and 
words of one syllable ; words that are spelled as they sound and words 
the spelling of which has little relation to sound; words that are reputa- 
ble and words that are out of repute ; words to be cultivated, and words 
Id be avoided. 

When the watch has been ripped entirely to pieces, the boy is con- 
fronted with the task of putting it together. He finds that he has 
many more pieces than he realized that he had when he was analyzing 
the watch. He must observe certain structural principles if he would 
build back to the finished product with which he began. The parts 
must be fastened together: each division must contain only the material 
belonging thereto. See Chapters 19, 20, 21, and 22. And when he 
has built the parts back together, he sees his watch in a different light. 
His synthetical method has taught him the vahie of structural principles. 

Accepting for each day's lesson what the turning of the next pages 
reveal, with no thought of fitting- the suliject of that lesson to the theme 
of composition as a whole or to the division of composition under which 



—11— 

it falls, is like groping down a dark passage — one can get no notion 
of the pathway ahead nor of the destination. Children are entirely 
capable of grasping the objective of a term's work, or of a book's con- 
tents, and valiant little workers they prove, too, as they take knotty 
objective after objective. Thorough familiarity with the outline of the 
text book should enable the teacher to use it as a guide, at the same 
time leaving herself free to use such supplementary work from other 
texts as may be necessary or wise. 

The review of the contents of this text book, or of any other, shows 
that the class must be called upon to begin to write long before it 
knows the principles of writing. If the text book is to be studied 
through the eighth and ninth grades, what are we to do in the first 
term of the eighth grade about the principles that are to be studied in the 
last term of the ninth grade, since, of course, a knowledge of all prin- 
ciples set forth in the text book is needed in the preparation of any 
theme ? 

The answer is, that the child must write his theme as he talks it, and 
the principles governing good writing must be observed in their most 
elementary form in the first term of the eighth grade. The most fre- 
quently needed principles of composition and rhetoric should receive 
drill in the eighth gTacle and the details of the outline should be filled in 
in the ninth, tenth and eleventh grades. A thorough knowledge of the 
outline and content of the text book is indispensable both to the teacher 
and student in order that any part of it may be used in any high school 
grade, whenever the work in composition demands special drill on any 
phase of the work. For instance : should a teacher find that her class 
is unusually weak in punctuation, 'she turns to pages 168-182 and uses 
her text book to aid the students to understand what she ex^^lains as 
she gives instruction in punctuation. If the class has the fault of 
using phrases or clauses as sentences, she turns to page 134 and gives 
a definite lesson on that weakness. 

■ The purpose of the text is to aid the pupil in his actual work of 
writing. -The study of the principles set forth in the text is valueless, 
except as the knowledge of them is made a part of the child's liabits of 
oral and written expression. 



-12- 



COURSE OF STUDY BY GRADES 



EIGHTH GEADE. 
I. Gkammak. 

It is the opinion of the State Superintendent that the eighth grade 
is the place in the school course for the chief work of the teaching of 
grammar in a practical way. Below this grade, children are too young 
to comprehend fully the logical relations of the parts of the sentence. 
A thorough drill on grammar should be given in the eighth grade, and 
the subject should be reviewed in the other grades of the high school. 
A comprehensive outline follows, stressing the main points of grammar, 
for which the child has a practical use in his high school course. Drill 
in the analysis of the sentence is valuable for clearness of expression 
and for the study of literature. In this outline of grammar, the State 
Superintendent has collaborated with the State Supervisor of English. 

On the completion of the work of the eighth grade the students 
should have a working knowledge of the following principles and facts 
of grammar : 

A. The simple sentence, 

1. Its logical or complete subject and logical or complete predi- 

cate. 

2. Its simple or grammatical subject and predicate, namely, the 

subject noun or pronoun and the predicate verb. 

3. Subject modifiers — the adjective and the adjective phrase. 

4. Predicate modifiers — the adverb and the adverbial phrase. 

5. Essential or main parts of the predicate, including the predi- 

cate verb, the direct object, the indirect object, the 
subject complement (sometimes called predicate noun, 
pronoun, adjective, or attribute complement, or sub- 
jective complement), the objective complement (some- 
times called factitive object, or objective predicate, or 
object complement), the adverbial object (sometimes 
called adverbial noun), the subject of an infinitive and 
the object of a preposition. 

6. The expletives it and there (sometimes called the anticipative 

subject). 

7. The compound subject and compound predicate. 

8. The phrase, classified as prepositional, participial, or infini- 

tive, according to form, and classified as substantive, 
adjectiA^e. or adverbial, according to use. 

B. The compound sentence. 

1. Ability to separate it into independent clauses. 

2. Its connectives — coordinating conjunctions. 



—13— 

C. The complex sentence. 

1. The iudepeudent clause — complete or elliptical. 

2. The flepeudent clause. 

a. Classification as to use. 

( 1 ) KSubstantive clause. 

(2) Adjective clause. 

(3) Adverbial clause. 

(a) Of time. 

(b) Of place. 

(c) Of manner. 

(d) Of cause. 

' (e) Of purpose. 

(f) Of result. 

(g) Of degree. 

D. Anah'sis. Drill in analyzing sentences containing these parts should 

be given until the child readily recognizes the parts, A mere 
definition without practical work is aseless in the teaching of 
grannnar. (See outline for analysis at close of the section on 
grammar.) 

E. Parts of speech. 

1, The noun. 

(a) Number should be reviewed for the proper forms of 

plurals. 

(b) Gender should be reviewed for the proper forms of 

gender nourrs. 

(c) Case should be reviewed in order to give drill on the 

correct formation and use of the possessive case. 

(d) Common and proper nouns should be reviewed for 

drill in capitalization. 

(e) Collective nouns should receive attention principally 

with reference to the use of the singular or 
plural verb as the predicate of such nouns. 

(f) Abstract nouns should be taught — as distinguished 

from adjectives and as formed from adjectives. 

2. The pronoun. 

(a) Case forms of personal, relative, and interrogative 

pronouns should receive drill, with reference to 
the proper use of such forms in the sentence. 
The possessive form with a verbal noun or gerund 
should receive drill. 

(b) Relative pronouns should be taught in their double 

iise — as connectives or introductive words of de- 
pendent clauses and as an essential part of the 
dependent clause — subject, object, etc. 

(c) Demonstratives should be explained and correct uses. 

of ill is, that, these, and those, both as pronouns 
and as adjectives should be taught. 

(d) Exercises should be given on the agreement of per- 

sonal and relative pronouns with the antecedent. 



—14— 

(e) The use of the relative pronoun in a dependent 
clause — it introduces a noun or adjective clause — 
serves as an introductory word to subordinate 
the clause, and in the dependent clause is an 
essential part of the clause — is used as a noun,, 
as the subject, object, subjective complement, 
objective of a preposition, etc.; it thus serves- 
two functions in the sentence. 

3. The verb. 

(a) Classed according to use as transitive, intransitive,. 

and copulative, and active and passive forms of 
the transitive verb; classed according to form 
as regular and irregular. 

(b) Use as a predicate, both as a simple and a phrase 

form. 

(c) Drill on the principal parts of all commonly used 

verbs — with especial stress on the fact that the 
past tense must not be used with an auxiliary, 
and the past participle must not be used without 
an auxiliary verb. 

(d) Agreement of verb with its subject, with especial 

drill on the forms of the verb be which are used, 
respectively, with a singular and a plural subject 
and with collective nouns. 

(e) The relation of the verb to the verbal — namely — the 

verb asserts the action, state, or condition, — 
forms a predicate; while the verbal implies the- 
action, state, or condition, and is used as a noun,, 
an adjective,- or an adverb. 

4. The verbal. 

(a) Simple infinitive — form with the prefix to, or before 

which the prefix to can be supplied; its simplest 
uses as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb; its 
subject, its object, and its subject complement — 
case of each. 

(b) The gerund — its use as a noun distinguishing it from 

the participle, which is used as an adjective; 
drill on its use as subject, object, subject com- 
plement, of a verb, and as object of a preposi- 
tion ; drill on the possessive case of a noun or 
pronoun before a gerund. 

(c) The participle — its use as an adjective modifier in 

the sentence; its objects or subject complement; 
its forms — present, past, and perfect; its use as- 
a part of a verb phrase. 

5. Adjective. 

(a) Proper adjectives — for drill in capitalization. 

(b) Descriptive. 



—15— 

(c) Limiting — demonstrative and indefinite. Drill on 

jDroper uses of this, that, these and those as 
demonstrative adjectives, especially with such 
nouns as hind and sort. 

(d) Use as modiiier, subject complement, or objective 

complement. 

(e) Comparison. Drill on correct comparative and super- 

lative forms; use of the comparative degree with 
reference to two objects, and of the superlative 
degree with reference to more than two objects. 

(f) When to use an adjective and when an adverb after 

such verbs as tool-, feel, smell, taste, etc. When 
the verb is used to express action it is followed 
by an adverb showing hoiv the action is per- 
formed; as, "He looked carefully for the purse"; 
when the verb expresses condition or state, it is 
followed by an adjective; as, "He looks careful; 
I will trust him." 

Adverb. 

(a) Distinction between the use of the adjective and the 

adverb as a modifier, and drill on correct uses. 

(b) Formation of adverbs from adjectives. 

(c) Drill on use of double negatives, including not only 

such words as no, not, never, none, but also 
scarcely, hardly, hut, except, and only. 

(d) Use of the conjunctive adverb in a dependent clause — 

it introduces a noun, adjective, or adverbial 
clause, serves as a connective or introductory 
word to subordinate the clause, and in the clanse 
has the use of an adverb — performs two func- 
tions. 

Connectives — preposition and conjunction. 

(a) Preposition — introduces a phrase — connects its ob- 

ject with the word Avhich the phrase modifies; 
object of a preposition — its case. 

(b) Conjunction. 

(1) Coordinating — connects independent clauses 

or like parts of speech, or dependent 
clauses or phrases which have the same 
use in the sentence — drill on each use. 

(2) Subordinating — connects a dependent clause- 

with the word which the clause modifies ; 
distinction from the relative pronoun and 
the conjunctive adverb — the subordinat- 
ing conjunction is merely a connective— 
has only one function in the sentence — is 
not an essential part of the dependent 
clause ; as, "He waited nntil she came." 
The relative pronoun connects a depend- 
ent clause Avitli the word which the clause 



—16— 

modifies, and has the use of a nonn in the 
clause — jjerforms tivo functions; as, ''This 
is the man u-lioin he favors." The con- 
junctive adverh connects a dependent 
clause with the word .which the clause 
modifies, and has the use of an adverb in 
the clause — performs two functions; as, 
"This is the house where he lives." 
8. Interjection. 

Independent in use; correct punctuation; exclamatory 
phrases. 

F. Outline for analysis ol; the sentence. 

1. The simple sentence. 

(a) Introduction. 

(1) Logical subject. 

(2) Logical predicate. 

(3) Expletive (if any). 

(b) Analysis of the subject. 

(1) Grammatical subject (subject noun or pro- 

noun or its equivalent). 

(2) Modifiers of the subject noun or pronoun. 

(3) Analysis of phrase modifiers in the subject. 

(Analyze a phrase by giving its intro- 
ductory word, if any, its base word, and 
the modifiers of the base word.) 

(c) Analysis of the predicate. 

(1) Grammatical predicate (predicate verb) and 

its objects or other complements. 

(2) Modifiers of the verb. 

(3) Modifiers of each object or other complement 

of the verb. 

(4) Analysis of phrase modifiers in the predicate. 

2. Analysis of the compound sentence. 

(a) Give the kind of sentence. 

(b) Separate the sentence into the independent clauses of 

which it is made ui>, and give the coordinating 
conjunctives which connect the clauses. 

(c) Analyze each independent clause as if it were a simple 

sentence. 

3. Analysis of the complex sentence. 

(a) Give the kind of sentence. 

(b) Give the independent clause, or clauses. 

(c) Give each dependent clause, stating how it is used, 

and whether it has the use of a noun, an ad- 
jective, or an adverb. 

(d) Analyze the independent clause, treating the de])end- 

ent clauses as parts of the independent clause in 
the form of single noun, adjective, or adver])ial 
elements. 



—17— 

(e) Analyze each dependent clause as if it were a simple 

sentence. 

(f) Give the introductory word of the dependent clause 

showing whether it is a relative pronoun, a con- 
junctive adverb, or a subordinating conjunction, 
and whether it has a single or a double function 
in the sentence. 

II. Composition. 

A. Text: Composition and Ehetoric, Herrick and Damon, Parts I, 

II, III, and IV. 

Unit of Emphasis — The Sentence. 

B. Aims. 

1. To develop the sentence sense. 

2. To give broader interests and better knowledge of environ- 

ment. 

3. To increase the pupil's powers of observation, organization, 

and expression, 

4. To enlarge the vocabulary. 

5. To eliminate errors in the spelling of common words. 

6. To insure a working knowledge of the elementary and most 

used principles of grammar. 

7. To teach the conventional form of the business letter and the 

social letter. 

8. To make correct punctuation habitual. 

9. To secure greater flexibility and variety of sentence structure. 

10. To teach the general principles of paragraphing. 

11. To arouse an intelligent interest in the structure of the whole 

composition and the coherence of its parts. 

C. Methods. 

1. To develop the sentence sense. 

(a) In oral and written work keep before the pupils the 

conception of the sentence as a unit. Combat 
the common practice of making an oral composi- 
tion a series of statements linked with "ands.'' 

(b) To secure variety and ilexihUity in sentence structure, 

there should be abundant drill in sentence man- 
ipulation. This, as experience shows, is not only 
effective, but interesting, since it introduces an 
element of challenge or contest. This exercise 
may have various forms, such as — 

(1) Combining a number of brief statements into 

a single sentence. 

(2) Changing compound sentences into simple or 

complex ones. 

(3) Reshaping awkward sentences, especially such 

as contain unnecessary repetition. 



—18— 

(4) Punctuating many sentences, or repunctuat- 
ing faulty sentences. This is effective in 
showing the relationship of part to part, 
and supplements the grammar study, giv- 
ing it practical application. 

2. As an aid to increasing the vocabulary, the dictionary should 

be frequently used. This may be supplemented by the 
study of word lists selected by the teacher from the 
books studied. Words derived from the same root may 
be listed, and their kinship traced. Words in memor- 
ized poems should receive such explanation and prac- 
tical drill that they may thereafter belong to the pupil's 
vocabulary. Particularly strong or expressive words en- 
countered in reading should be appreciated and appro- 
priated for his own use by the pupil. Graceful, pleas- 
ing phrasing of letters, invitations, or replies to invita- 
tions and speeches for special occasions, should form a 
part of the work in writing of compositions. 

3. In all composition work in the high school, the pupil should 

be trained in making an outline of the composition be- 
fore writing, and in writing compositions from his own 
outlines. 

4. As bad spelling is considered a mark of illiteracy, it is the 

duty of the school to make a determined effort to over- 
come this fault. The study of a spelling book does not 
always make good spellers. To send a pupil to the dic- 
tionary when he makes a mistake merely shows him 
how the word is spelled ; it does not teach him to spell it. 
His mistakes are due to the fact that he has a blurred 
or a wrong mental image of the word. To correct this 
it is necessary to make the right image familiar. When 
a pupil misspells a word, he should be required to pro- 
nounce it and write it slowly and carefully. Further- 
more, the word should be copied in a list kept by the 
pupil, and marked Words Which I Misspell, which the 
teacher should inspect from time to time, testing the 
pupil upon his list. 

It is an excellent plan to keep upon the blackboard lists of 
words that are commonly misspelled, changing the list 
once or twice a week. The pupils should learn to spell 
such common words as "all right" and "until" before 
they learn to spell such words as "phthisis." 

Drill should be centered u])on the words that investigation 
shows are frequently misspelled by the pupils of these 
years. The lists should be made up of the class list, 
gathered by the teacher from the written work, and the 
grade list, suggested by the work of Ayres and others. 
Classes in the commercial group will require a special 
and more extensive drill than other classes because of 
the tests to which they are likely soon to be put. Sub- 



—19— 

ject spelling should be carried on in history and other 
classes so as to prevent the misspelling of proper nouns 
and technical terms. 
Much of the recitation in spelling should be devoted to pre- 
senting the new words. Not more than three or four 
distinctly new and different words should be taken up 
in a single class period. These should be spoken, writ- 
ten, divided into syllables, used in sentences, and com- 
pared with similar and dissimilar words as to form, 
meaning, and use. Special attention should be called 
to the part of each word which is likely to be misspelled. 
The work should be reviewed several times at lengthen- 
ing intervals, of one day, two days, etc. By dint of 
such treatment pupils may be taught to spell correctly 
all the words they wish to use, and they should be re- 
quired to do this. The study of word structure and 
derivation, valuable in other ways, will supplement the 
work in spelling and should be systematically carried on. 

5. The form of the hiisiness letter should receive painstaking 

attention, and the content of the business letter will be 
improved if a direct incentive is held before the students; 
m other words, if drill on business letters be made 
interesting as well as practical. Letters of application 
for positions are of personal interest to pupils. Teach- 
ers sometimes secure from business firms the loan of 
actual letters that concern business transactions. This 
is practical and of value to the students. 

6. In teaching the social letter it has been found an incentive to 

have the pupils correspond with pupils of a similar 
grade in another tovra or district. The first letter is 
planned as a class exercise, the form, the stationery, the 
superscription all being carefully considered. Later let- 
ters may be written with little supervision. The desire 
of the pupil to do well will be an incentive for careful 
work, and the practice in composition may be quite as 
valuable as if done under the teacher's eye. Pupils re- 
ceiving particularly good letters may give them to the 
teacher to read to the class, and may report the teach- 
er's comment to the writer. 

7. Pun-ctiiation, so far as it obeys the rules of grammar, should 

be taught as a part of the study of the grammatical 
structure of the sentence. The outline of topics in 
grammar provides automatically for certain drill in 
punctuation. Matters of punctuation that are purely 
or primarily rhetorical should be sparingly touched 
upon in the junior high school for the reason that the 
pupils are not yet capable of fine distinctions and may 
easily form the habit of overpunctuating, which is 
worse than no punctuating at all. Let the pupils realize 
that marks of punctuation are intended to help the 



—go- 
reader's eyes, to prevent his running expressions to- 
gether that should be noticed separately, and you have 
laid the foundation for an intelligent use of these 
symbols. The written work of the pupils will provide 
the matter for practice, and the teacher may supply 
exercises connected with the literature courses. 

An eighth grade boy was once asked, "What do you know about punc- 
tuation marks?" Promptly, though with no hint of impudence, he re- 
plied, "I don't use them." 

That same boy was keenly interested in this analogy of punctuation 
marks : 

You are a Boy Scout, hence you have been taught wigwagging. One 
fine day, you stand on a certain hill with your signalling instruments in 
your hands to wigwag a very important message to another scout out 
on a certain strategic point. You must get your message to him. The 
fate of your side in the approaching battle depends upon your sending 
your message in its exact form and upon his receiving every signal cor- 
rectly. Neither of you dares to stay visible for long. And there is no 
time to lose. Suppose he is not a skilled member of the signal corps ! 
Suppose he has been careless in the receiving of his training ! Many 
of the signals in the code are very similar; suppose he should mistake 
one for the other ! You are not afraid of your code of signals, for it is 
the universally accepted code of signals. The question is : will the man 
on yonder point understand the code ? 

You send your signal, careful of every character. Then you watch. 
Good ! Your message is repeated to you exactly. You are grateful for 
the code that has made it possible for people to speak to each other 
under such difficulties and across such a space. And you are grateful 
for a training so widespread that both you and the man on yon danger- 
ous hill could exchange your valuable information. 

You are a boy in the eighth grade, hence you are learning what other 
boys of the eighth grade in other ages and in other states have done. 
Mark Twain stands off on a hill that has — well, death and years and 
distance and a number of other things in between you and him, but 
because you can understand his code, he tells you charmingly of the 
adventures of a boy named Tom Sawyer, and his renegade companion, 
one Huck Finn. Robert Louis Stevenson tells you of a boy named Jim 
Hawkins and what he heard from the apple barrel, and you feel that 
you would not have wished to miss that story. Charles Dickens, from 
even a greater distance, tells vou about Oliver Twist and David Copper- 
field; and Macaulay tells you of a ,young fellow named Horatius who 
defended a bridge against a horde. On the ether hand, Boothe Tark- 
ington, still alive and writing stories, but very busy and far away, is tell- 
ing about Penrod Scofield and his new schemes — and all through a 
system of wigwags ! 

Punctuation is a system or code of wigwags. Punctuation groups 
thought, and signals how it is to be interpreted. Here is something 
of the code of signals that every man, woman, and child should be able 
to read accurately, or to send accurately, as the case should call for : 



—21— 

1. The period signals that a complete thought is finished. Look 
out for a new thought ! 

2. The semicolon signals that a complete thought is divided into 
phrases or clauses of equal weight; at least, the author is sigiialling to 
you that he considers them of equal value or weight. 

3. The colon signals to you that an explanation is to follow of what 
has gone before. 

4. The comma, with its seven (or twelve, according to the authority 
quoted) different signals, calls for more knowledge than does any other 
one character of the code. (Challenge the 3^oung signal corps man, and 
see how proficient he becomes in the shadings of its use!) 

The point is that punctuation is not to be taught as a set of rules to 
be memorized. The child's impulse in the lower grades is to use 
commas plentifully on all occasions. The later stages of the usual train- 
ing in punctuation marks is very apt to result in such a state of feeling 
toward punctuation marks as that expressed by the boy quoted above, 
who said, "I don't use them." 

Punctuation marks are a code of signals between reader and writer, 
often across abysses of space and time. The skillful writer is careful 
not to sidetrack the attention of his reader by giving superfluous signals ; 
and he is equally careful not to give any false signals. The skillful 
reader interprets every signal of his writer, and the more quickly the 
eye and mind can catch and apply the signal given, the more rapid and 
dependable is the interpretation of his message. 

D. Oral English. 

1. Oral composition : The pupil should have practice in speak- 

ing from a prepared outline on narrative, descriptive, 
expository, or argumentative subjects. Subjects such as 
the following may be used to advantage : "How to 

Make "; Reproduction of (1) scenes from 

books; (2) Bible stories: (3) myths, fables; (4) scenes 
from early childhood; (5) descriptions of home, or of 
various buildings or scenes in the locality and other ele- 
mentary discussions of items of local or school interest; 
(6) presentation of news items. Emphasis should be 
laid on variety of sentence length, form, and structure, 
and directness of discourse should be encouraged. 

2. Posture should be corrected to secure erectness and graceful 

pose. 

3. The speech defects of individuals should be carefully tabu- 

lated and the proper exercises prescribed. 

4. Oral reading for the proper grouping of words, with instruc- 

tion in management of voice in inflection and emphasis, 
should be given. 

5. Pronunciation of words containing commonly misused 

sounds should receive drill ; as — 

(a) oi sounds; e. g., oil, voice, etc. 

(b) aw sounds; e. g., saw, draw, etc. 



—22— 

(c) ing endings. 

(d) other sounds misused in the locality. 

6. Enim^cmtion of words that are eominonly slurred should be 

practiced; as in "had to" and in "would have/' etc. 

7. Oral reading, with emphasis laid on smoothness and flow of 

sentence, is of value. 

8. Memorized selections to be recited before the class should be 

assigned frequently. These may be either prose or 
poetry. Attention should be given to avoiding a sing- 
ing effect. ' 

9 . Dram atim Hon. 

III. Literature. 

It is the intention of the Department of Education that the teachers 
of English in Texas may have all the freedom possible in the choice of 
classics that are read in their classes. Obviously, however, it would be 
inconsistent to say, "Choose anything you like." We can only say that 
if for some reason you wish to use for intensive study or for outside 
reading some books which are not listed, there is no objection to this, 
provided that, in the main, the classics listed are used. 
A. For intensive study. 

Group 1. 
(Select two.) 

1. Arnold — Sohrab and Eustum. 

2. Longfellow— Courtship of Miles Standish, Evangeline, Tales 

of a Wayside Inn. 

3. Stories from the Iliad. 

4. Scott — Lady of the Lake. 

5. Macaulay — Lays of Ancient Rome. 

6. Tennyson — Enoch Arden. 

7. Whittier — Snow Bound. 

Group 2. Fiction. 
(Select two.) 

1. Irving — Sketch Book (Selections). 

2. Poe— Gold Bug. 

3. Stevenson — Treasure Island. 

4. Halleck and Barbour — Readings from Literature. 

5. Ashmun — Prose Literature for Secondary Schools. 

6. Thomas and Paul — Atlantic Prose and Poetry. 

7. Law — Modern Short Stories. 

8. Laselle — Short Stories of New America. 

9. Van Dyke— Story of the Other Wi^e Man. 

10. Dickens — Oliver Twist. 

11. Dickens — David Copperfield. 

12. Dickens — Christmas Carol. 

13. ■ Scott — Ivanhoe. 



—23— 

14. Swift— Gulliver's Travels. 

15. Defoe — Robison Crusoe. 

16. Ramsay — Stories of America. 

Group 3. Drama. 
(Select one.) 

1. Maeterlinck— The Blue Bird. 

2. Shakespeare— Twelfth Night. 

3. Shakespeare — Merchant of Venice. 

4. Shakespeare — Midsummer Night's Dream. 

Group Jf. Miscellansous. 
(Select one.) 

1. Franklin — Autobiography. 

2. Payne — Southern Literary Readings. 

3. Old Testament Narratives. 

4. Washington's Farewell Address. 

B. For outside reading. (Read four.) 

(Any of the selections above not used for intensive study may 
be included under their respective groups.) 

Group 1. Poetry. 

1. Grray — Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. 

2. Pope — Rape of the Lock. 

3. Scott — Lay of the Last Minstrel. 

Group 2. Fiction. 

1. Twain — Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn. 

2. Kipling — Jungle Books, I and II. 

3. London— Call of the Wild, White Fang. 

4. Bacheller — D'ri and I. 

5. 0. Henry — Stories from Heart of the West. 

6. White— Court of Boyville. 

7. Wiggin — Rebecca of Sunnv Brook Farm. 

8. Cable— Old Creole Days. 

Group 3. Short Stories. 
(Select two.) 

1. Harris — Uncle Remus. 

2. Page — In Ole Virginia. 

3. Hawthorne— Twice Told Tales. 

4. 0. Henry — Selections from Heart of the West. 

Group Jf. Memory Worl\ 
(As many as possible.) 

1. Noyes — The Highwayman. 

2, Emerson — The Rhodora, Concord Hymn. 



— 24— 

3. Shakespeare — Portia's Speech on Mercy from the Merchant 

of Venice. 

4. Longfellow — The Arrow and the Song. 

5. Field— Little Boy Blue. 

6. Foss — The House by the Side of the Road. 

7. Riley — Little Orphant Annie. 

NINTH GRADE. 

I. Gkammar. 

A. First term. 

1. General review by the Outline for Eighth Grade work. 

2. Special study of complex and compound sentences, with 

analysis, until the pupil shows proficiency. 

3. Elliptical sentences. 

4. Classes of coordinating conjunctions. 

(1) Copulative — and, moreover, etc. 

(2) Adversative — but, nevertheless, etc. 

(3) Causal— therefore, accordingly, so, etc. 

(4) Alternative — or, nor, else, etc. 

5. Classes of subordinating conjunctions : of time, cause, man- 

ner, purpose, result, and degree. 

6. Special study of the dependent clause in its uses as a noun, 

an adjective, and an adverb. 

7. The part of speech : Various uses of nouns ; substitutes for 

nouns; modes of the verb (indicative, imperative, and 
subjunctive) ; verb phrases; parts of troublesome verbs; 
building paradigms; words used now as one part of 
speech, now as another; expletives. 

B. Second term. 

1. The sentence: Word order; agreement: variations by con- 

densation of clauses, or expansion of verbals and of 
phrases ; essential and nonessential clauses. 

2. The parts of speech ; classes, forms and uses of pronouns ; an 

idea of person, number, and voice of verbs developed 
(paradigms of indicative mood built up by way of illus- 
tration). 

3. Special study of the verbal, including the simple infinitive, 

the gerund, and the participle. 

II. CoMPOsiTioisr. 

A. Text: Composition and Rhetoric, Herrick and Damon. Review 

chapters on sentence structure, words, and punctuation. Study 
intensively paragraph structure. Complete the study of the 
text. 
Unit of emphasis — The paragraph. 

B. Aims. 

1. In general, clearer and more logical thinking; more correct, 
more forceful expression. 



—25— 

2. Particular emphasis sliould fall on the sentence and on the 

elaboration of the paragraph. 

3. Pupils should learn how to handle typical problems of busi- 

ness correspondence related to ordinary experience, in- 
cluding letters, notes, and telegrams. 

4. Pupils should also have the opportunity of forming right 

habits in the use of the newspaper. 

5. Drill in punctuation should be continued. 

6. Correct, direct business letters, and pleasing, well-written 

social letters should receive attention. 

C. Material. 

1. For paragraph writing : Subjects familiar to the pupil 

which lend themselves to treatment by contrast, by com- 
parison, by example, by details, etc. Questions of civic 
interest and those concerning vocations are suitable ma- 
terial; also work in the shops or laboratories and topics 
taken from other subjects in the curriculum. 

2. Themes based on literature, provided the exercises are of vital 

interest to the pupil and do not lead to literary criti- 
cisms and questions of technique. Problems of human 
conduct suggested by reading the classics furnish excel- 
lent material. For example: (a) Should Jean Val jean 
have revealed his identity? (b) Why Brutus failed. 

(c) Can the boy of today plan his life as Franklin did? 

(d) Gareth's ideals and the modern boy. (e) The de- 
velopment of the character of Silas Marner. 

3. For dramatization : Conversation in real life revealing char- 

acter ; arguments carried on by conversation concerning 
familiar subjects ; chapters from books that lend them- 
selves easily to the dramatic form. 

4. Incidents written up as news stories; brief editorials on 

■ matters of student opinion ; advertisements, particularly 
if they can be put to use. 

5. Class discussions of topics of current interest. 

6. Spelling of words needed in themes; word building for in- 

crease of the vocabulary. 

7. Some of the simpler letters of Stevenson, Dickens, Carroll, 

and Lincoln are stimulating examples of the informal 
letter. "The Lady of the Decoration" by Eice and 
"Pillars of Fire" by Ingram, and "A Student In Arms" 
by Hankey are examples of books written in the form 
of informal letters to home-people. 

D. Methods. 

1. Pupils should be taught how to organize material by the use 

of notes and outlines. x4.nalysis of good paragraphs by 
contemporaries will help. 

2. Pupils should also be taught how to test a paragraph as to its 

unity and point of view by summarizing it in a single 
sentence. This and the preceding suggestion apply par- 



— 26— 

ticularly to explanation, expression of opinion, and his- 
torical narrative. 

3. Study sentences by examining them in typical paragraphs. 

Let the class see how a paragraph is divided into sen- 
tences — how the sentences succeed each other and are 
related to each other. 

4. Assist to greater ease in handling sentences by much sen- 

tence manipulation. Let the class condense, combine, 
transpose, expand, divide sentences of various types; 
make sure that they recognize grammatical relationships. 

5. Show how clearness may be obtained by the use of con- 

nectives; by correct placing of modifiers; by unmistak- 
able reference of pronouns; by correct sequence of 
tenses; by avoiding dangling participles; by omitting 
unnecessary words; by punctuation. 

6. Speaking first and writing afterward is one way of insuring 

good organization and effective treatment of details. 

7. Require each pupil to keep a list of words and expressions 

which he misuses or which he ought not to use at all, 
with correct equivalents. 

E. Oral English. 

1. Oral Composition. Well pronounced sentences should be re- 

quired for all oral recitations. Use class conversations, 
stories, experience, reports, extemporaneous speeches, on 
subjects drawn from the literature study, correlated 
studies, school affairs, current events. Emphasis should 
be laid upon complete paragraphs and a coherent ar- 
rangement. 

2. Oral Reading. Utterance should be related to thought 

through grouping, inflection, pauses, and emphasis. 
Portions of the prose and poetry used in literature study 
of the class are available. 

3. Delivery of Memorized Selections. Practice in conveying an 

author's thought to an audience, and securing and hold- 
ing the attention of an audience should be given. At- 
tention should be paid to the rate of utterance, force, 
pitch, and quality of voice. 

4. Posture and Action. Instruction and practice in posture and 

action in connection with delivery of selections and 
dramatization should be given. 

5. Pronunciation. Instruction should be given in syllabifica- 

tion and accent, and in classification of common errors. 
Drill in difficult vowels and words commonly mispro- 
nounced should receive attention. 

6. Training the Ear. This may be given by calling attention 

to pleasant and unpleasant effects in connection with 
work in phonetics, pronounciation, voice culture, oral 
reading, and speaking. 



—27— • 

7. Cultivation of the Voice. This should include continued 

exercises for resonance and range of voice, which can 
be carried on in connection with work in phonetics, 
reading, and oral composition. 

8. Dramatization. This should include analysis of character, 

relation of one character to another, interpretation of 
character, discussion of stage business, dramatization of 
scenes from Silas Marner, Browning-'s poems, Shakes- 
peare's plays, or other literature that is studied by the 
class. 

F. Study of versification. 

1. In this grade the pupil should be taught in a practical way 

the different forms of poetic feet, and should have drill 
* in distinguishing them, one from another. 

2. This should be followed by a study of the forms of the poetic 

line and classification of the line and foot. 

3. Study of the various forms of the stanza in common use 

should be succeeded by exercises in scansion, continued 
until the class can scan and classify the most common 
forms of verse. 

4. This work should be followed by exercises in writing verse. 

The teacher will sometimes be astonished to find that 
some pupils whose prose "WTiting is poor are capable of 
producing acceptable verse. Exercises in verse virriting 
train the pupil in taste and in appreciation of poetry. 

III. Literature. 
A. For intensive study. 

Group 1. Poetry. 
(Select two.) 

1. Byron — Prison of Chillon. 

2. Coleridge — Ancient Mariner. 

3. Lowell — Vision of Sir Launfal. 

4. Goldsmith — Deserted Village. 

5. Tennyson — Gareth and Lynette and simpler Idylls, 

Group 2. Fiction. 
(Select two.) 

1. Goldsmith — Vicar of Wakefield. 

2. Dickens— Tale of Two Cities. 

3. Eliot — Silas Marner. 

4. Scott — Quentin Durward. 

5. Addison and Steele — Sir Roger de Coverly Papers. 

6. Hawthorne — The House of the Seven Gables. 



, —28— 

Group 3. Short Stories. 
(Select two.) 

1. Hale— The Man Without a Country. 

2. 0. Henry — Eoads of Destiny. 

3. Hawthorne — The Ambitious Guest. 

4. Poe— Fall of the House of Usher. 

Group 4- Drama. 
(Select two.) 

1. Shakespeare — Julius Caesar. 

2. Shakespeare — As You Like It. 

Group 5. Essays and Addresses. 
(Select two.) 

1. Woodrow Wilson — Selected War addresses from Democracy 

Tod/iy by G-auss. 

2. Lewis — Voices of Our Leaders. 

3. Hubbard — Message to Garcia. 

4. Washington — Farewell Address. 

B. For outside reading. (Select four.) 

1. Allen — Flute and Violin. 

2. Hughes — Tom Browm's School Days. 

3. Blackmore — Lorna Doone. 

4. Lytton — Last Days of Pompeii. 

5. Eeade — The Cloister and the Hearth. 

6. Eoosevelt — Hunting Trips of a Ranchman, Strenuous Life. 

7. Barrie — The Little Minister. 

8. Stevenson — Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

9. Hugo — Les Miserables. 

10. Boswell — Life of Johnson. 

11. Porter— Scottish Chiefs. 

12. Wallace — Prince of India; Ben Hur. 

Poetry. 
(Memorize six.) 

1. Bryant— To a Waterfowl. 

2. Holmes — The Chambered Nautilus. 

3. Kipling — Recessional. 

4. Lanier — Song of the Chattahoochee. 

5. Tennyson — Bugle Song, Charge of the Light Brigade. 

6. Taylor — Song of the Camp. 

7. McCrae — Flanders Fields. 

8. Gilmer — Rouge Banquet. 

9. Service — Rhymes of a Red Cross Man. 
10. Markham— the Man With the Hoe. 



—39— 

TENTH GRADE. 

I. Gkammae. 

A. Eeview grammatical principles in connection with sentence struc- 
ture, punctuation, and the correct use of words. 

II. Composition. 

A. Text: Composition and Rhetoric, Herrick and Damon. To be 

used as a guide or reference book when questions in composi- 
tion and rhetoric arise. 
Unit of emphasis — The Composition as a Whole. 

B. Aims. 

1. To make the use of words more mature and more accurate. 

2. To secure a i>olish of diction. 

3. To extend knowledge of organization of subject matter. 

4. To develop power to gatlier new material — in short, to do 

elementary research work. 

5. To develop ease and directness in oral or written exposition. 

6. To gain some knowledge of the technique of the short story. 

C. Material. 

1. For short themes, expository descriptions of natural phe- 

nomena and mechanisms ; plans of cities ; discussions of 
colleges; informal arguments for and against certain 
vocations. 

2. For long themes, material on science, manufacturing, com- 

merce, or biography gathered from current books and 
periodicals and from observation. 

3. Class study of prose, such as the best articles in the World's 

Work and Review of Reviews in order to develop the 
idea of logical construction. 

4. Class study of examples of social letters by recog-nized authors. 

5. Six weeks' review of technical grammar at the beginning of 

the second term. Use the outlines previously .given, 
and devote especial attention to sentence analysis, with 
a view to a clear knowledge on the pupil's part of the 
essential parts of the sentence and of the common forms 
of compound and complex sentences. 

D. Methods. 

1. Speaking, writing, reading good examples, and rewriting is 

a good sequence of activities. 

2. Have class exercises in the organization of material. 

3. Let members of the class report progress and exchange 

readings and clippings and bibliography. 

4. Let pupils bond in outlines, in advance, to be criticized be- 

fore writing some of their papers. 

5. Pupils should learn how to consult library catalogues and 

periodical indexes such as the Reader's Guide, how to 



—30— 

file notes and keep a card index, and how to revise 
manuscript. 

6. There should be much testing of the pupils' work as to clear- 

ness through unity and coherence. 

7. In teaching the short story, the plot should be laid in the 

environment of the pupil so that he writes about real 
experiences. A pupil who has lived on the plains can 
give well the atmosphere of the country and the people 
of that section; if a boy has s|>ent a summer on the 
coast, he will probably like to make such scenes the 
setting for his story. Teachers should be careful not 
to accept as original, stories whose setting the student 
has taken from some professional writer or from picture 
shows. It is well to remember that all short stories 
need not be love stories; that there are dramatic situa- 
tions in every-day life, which, if told naturally and 
simply, can alwaj^s find appreciative audiences. This 
is an excellent opportunity to cultivate in students an 
appreciation of the story element of their own com- 
munity; to lead them to appreciate the nobility of many 
a quiet, unobtrusive character in their own town or 
country, to realize that all struggles toward something 
higher and better, whether by animal, by the human 
family, or by the community, make stories that the 
human family will always be interested in. Children's 
sense of humor usually needs directing, if it is to de- 
velop into a habit or attitude of seeing the bright side 
and the humorous incidents of every-day living. Pupils 
should be taught that an excellent test of a person's 
character is what amuses him, and to distinguish be- 
tween real humor and what is merely sharp or coarse. 
They should receive training in condemning as not 
amusing whatever may wound the feeling of others. 
The teacher of the short story has excellent opportunity 
for material for her short stories in the lives and the 
happenings of the community about her when she is 
directing and maturing ideals of her students. 
Poe's technique of the short story* should be taught here, and 
its principles applied to several standard stories. Heyd- 
rick's "Types of the Short Story" is an excellent book 
to put into the hands of the class. Cuttings from 
stories or novels can be made to conform to the require- 
ments of the short story, and they make excellent oral 
discourses before the class : — for instance, from "Tom 
Sawyer" take the scene of Tom and Becky Thatcher^s 
love story at the schoolhouse during the noon hour; 
write an introduction, cut out all details that do not go 
to make the cutting unified, and, if necessary, write the 



*See Poe's review of Hawthorne's "Twice Told Tales," or see page 260 of 
Payne's "History of American Literature." 



—31— 

conclusion. Cuttings from other stories, with introduc- 
tion, body, and conclusion, all directly aimed at one 
unified effect, afford a very good drill for teaching the 
technique of the short story, for teaching unity and 
coherence of any composition, and for teaching the ap- 
preciation of dramatic situations and effects that are 
interesting though not necessarily highly dramatic. 
Plots may be given outright to the pupil. The ability to 
make the reader "see" the story should be the aim of 
the writer. 

E. Oral English. 

1. Oral Composition. Extemporaneous speaking on topics as- 

signed in advance and impromptu speaking on questions 
of school and local interest should be given, as well as 
instruction in speech organization. In debate, instruc- 
tion should be given as to (a) Statement of the ques- 
tion, (b) Definition of the terms, (c) Distinction be- 
tween assertion and proof, (d) The nature of evidence. 
Debating between members of the class, divided into 
teams, on questions of local interest and simple ques- 
tions of State or National interest should occur several 
times during the year. 

2. Public SpeaJiing. While the class will furnish the audience 

for much of the speaking practice, public occasions 
should be arranged for, where those preparing them- 
selves for work that calls for public speech will have 
opportunity, after careful preparation, of speaking in 
public. 

3. Vocabulary. Emphasis should be laid upon the importance 

of extending the vocabulary by looking up words not 
well understood, by keeping a notebook for desirable 
words, and by the study of synonyms, antonyms, and 
idioms. 

4. Oral Reading and Delivery of Memorized Selections. Selec- 

tions should be studied for the appropriate interpreta- 
tion of the various literary types ; the lyric, the dramatic 
monologue, the essay, etc. The- literature studied in this 
grade will be found available for exercises. 

5. Physical Response or Action. Instruction should be given 

in appropriate bodily response to thought by gestures. 
Kinds of gestures, their use and abuse, should be dis- 
cussed. Exercises should be given for spontaneous re- 
sponse, 

6. Dramatization. The simple dramatization of scenes from 

the literature studied in this grade should receive prac- 
tice. The study of Shakespearean dramas should be 
folloAved by the presentation of important scenes by the 
members of the class. The study of the contemporary 
drama, with discussions, should receive attention. The 



—32— 

presentation by a selected cast of classical and popular 
dramas will give valuable training and arouse local 
interest. 

F. Study of Versification. The pupil should review the work of the 
previous grade, and should study the most commonly used 
forms of lines and stanzas in his literature courses. Practice 
in scansion should be given until he can readily scan and 
classify the common types of such stanzas as occur in his 
courses in literature. Verse writing should be continued. 

III. Literature. 
A. For intensive study. 

Group 1. Poetry. 

1. American poems in connection with American literature. 

Gems from the poetry should be memorized. Many 
readings of the poems should make the memory work 
easy and pleasant. 

2. English Poems — Palgrave's Golden Treasury II (selections). 

The skillful teacher will not lose the opportunity to show 
the connection between contemporary English and 
American literature. 

Group 2. Essays, Biograpliies, Debates. 
(Select two.) 

1. Emerson — Friendship, Character, Self-Reliance. 

2. Lamb — Selections from Essays of Elia. 

3. Macaulay — Life of Johnson. 

4. Riis — ]\Taking of An American. 

5. Wilson — Inaugural Address. 

Group 3. Fiction. 
(Select two.) 

; 1. Eliot — Silas Marner, Adam Bede. ; 

2. Holmes — Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. 

3. Howells — Rise of Silas Lapham. 

4. Hawthorne — The House of the Seven Gables. 

5. Ruskin — Sesame and Lilies. 

6. Thackeray — Vanity Fair. 

7. Dana — Two Years Before the Mast. 

Group Jf. Drama. 
(Select two.) 

1. Shakespeare — Macbeth. 

2. Shakespeare — Romeo and Juliet. 

3. Shakespeare— Twelfth Night. 

4. Shakespeare — Henry V. 



—33— 

Group 5. Short Stones. 
(Select two.) 

1. 0. Henry — (Selections — numbers). 

2. Poe — Prose Tales (selections). 

3. Kipling— The Light that Failed, Plain Tales from the Hills. 

4. Maupassant — The Necklace. 

5. Hawthorne— The Ambitious Guest, The Great Stone Face. 

6. Irving — Sketch Book (selections). 

7. Harte — Tennessee's Partner, Luck of Roaring Camp. 

8. Twain — The Celebrated Frog of Calaveras County. 

9. Heydrick — Types of the Short Story. 

B. For outside reading. 

Fiction. 

(Read four.) 

Any of the list under Group 2 that are not read intensively may be 
included in this list. 

1. Eliot — Eomola. 

2. H. H. Jackson — Eamona. 

3. Hawthorne — The Scarlet Letter. 

4. Twain — Innocents Abroad, Pudd'n Head Wilson. 

5. Porter — Thaddeus of Warsaw. 

6. Hugo — Les Miserables. ' 

Anthologies. 

1. Three Centuries of Prose and Poetry — Newcomer-Andrews- 

Hall. 

2. Readings from American Literature — Calhoun and Mac- 

Alarney. 

3. Selections from American Literature — Payne. 

Other Reference Boohs. 

1. Chief American Poets — Page. 

2. A Study of the Types, of Literature— Rich (Century Com- 

pany). 

3. Southern Life in Southern Literature— Fulton (Ginn and 

Company). 

4. Southern Prose and Poetry— Mims and Payne (Scribner). 

5. Little Book of Modern Verse, I and II— Rittenhouse (Houoh- 

ton-Mifflin). 

6. Types of the Short Story- Heydrick (Scott-Foresman). 

7. Selections from the World's Greatest Short Stories— Cody 

(McClung and Company). 

8. Short Stories of America— Edited by Robert L. Ramsay 

(Houghton-Mifflin). 



—34^ 

ELEVENTH GEADE. 

I. Grammar. 

A. In the last term of the t^eiiior year, a brief review of grammar should 
* be given, with praetie(3 in sentence analysis. 

II. Composition. 

A. Text: Composition and Khetoric, Herrick and Damon. To be 

used as a guide or reference book when questions in composi- 
tion and rhetoric arise. 
Unit of emphasis — The Composition as a Whole. 

B. Aims. 

1. To give experience in collecting and organizing material for 

themes of some length — 1500 words or more; to teach 
the use of the expository outline for this jDurpose; to 
show how to secure interest and appropriate emphasis. 

2. To give practice in debating and parliamentary usage. 

3. To extend and fix knowledge of the principles of paragraph 

structure and sentence structure. 

4. To continue to build upon the work of Grade X in such 

ways as may be possible and necessary. 

5. To utilize special interests of |)articular classes where con- 

ditions permit. 

C. Material. 

1. Current events, magazine articles, topics developed by obser- 

vation and library work, questions for informal debate, 
biography, general reading. 

2. In special courses: (a) Short stories; (b) dramatizations 

and verse making; (c) debating; (d) newspaper writ- 
ing; (e) economic and industrial interests; (f) com- 
mercial correspondence. 

D. Methods. 

1. Local history may furnish much material for dramatization, 

as may also any dramatic incident in history. 

2. For the Avork in debating, wide reading on subjects of na- 

tional importance should be required. These subjects 
should be of present interest and should not be too 
difficult or involve too much detail. 

3. For the work in exposition, a nucleus of interest for tlie long 

expository theme should be in the mind of the ]>upil. 
He learns a little about radium. His curiosity is 
aroused. By using the Reader's Guide he finds that he 
may learn almost all there is known about this interest- 
ing subject. A boy in the fourth year has made a gas 
engine. His interest in engines is keen enough to lead 
him to find out about marine engines. Economic ques- 
tions concernins: certain vocations are good material. 



—35— 

The problem in the above cases will be to make the 
subjects interesting to an ordinary audience. 

4. For the work in advertising, analyze good advertising in 

newspajjers and magazines and write advertisements for 
school activities — athletic contests, plays, social events — 
and for salable articles made in the school. 

5. For journalism, study the writing of editorials for school 

publications, study the "news story,'' and the applica- 
tion of its principles in the reporting of school activi- 
ties — athletics, social events, etc. 

6. For verse writing, material should be confined to very simple 

' themes which school life furnishes. Occasionally a pupil 
is found who may be encouraged to express genuine 
feeling in the lyric form. 

7. Note to the teacher : From the first of this year, particular 

vigilance should be exercised towards the student who 
is weak in the fundamentals of English composition 
and rhetoric. If he is persistently weak or careless in 
the matters of spelling, punctuation, penmamship, cap- 
italization, sentence and paragraph structure, and choice 
and correctness of words and phrases, he should be 
warned from the first of the year that he will not be 
allowed to graduate unless he attains a ivorhing 
Tcnoivledge of these principles. By the time he reaches 
this year's course, correct use of such fundamentals 
should have become habitual. Any child who is ham- 
pered by a deficiency in the fundamentals is unlikely 
to accomjjlish satisfactory results in eleventh grade 
work. 



E. Oral English. 



1. Oral Composition. Debating should be continued, as in the 
tenth grade, with the emphasis upon a logical develop- 
ment of the thought, the presentation of satisfactory 
evidence, and interesting delivery. This should include 
planning speeches for particular occasions; e. g., social 
occasions, introduction of speakers, after-dinner talks, 
gift presentations, business occasions, explaining a 
business proposition, soliciting cooperation, making a 
law3'er's plea, etc. 
An effective plan in debate is to divide the class into groups 
of fours ; place on the blackboard a list of live subjects 
for debate, and permit each group to choose a subject; 
let members of each group draw, respectively, for the 
affirmative and the negative side, placing two on each 
side ; each group should then outline its debate with 
the teacher's assistance, and, following the outline, work 
out the debate carefully; each group should then give 
its debate before the class, the class voting at the close 
as to which side had won. 



—36— 

Other effective exercises result from the organization of the 
class into city councils, moot courts, or legislative bodies, 
with debates on subjects commonly brought before such 
bodies. 

2. Orations. The memorizing and delivery of carefully pre- 

pared compositions on important themes from political 
or industrial life, or from literature. Instruction in 
choosing subjects and illustrations within the experience 
of the audience. Consideration of the elements of in- 
terest and how to avoid digression and tediousness. Re- 
lation between speaker and audience. 

3. Vocabulary. Continued emphasis should be placed upon the 

necessity of acquiring an ample vocabulary. 

4. Parliamentary Practice. Instruction and practice in parlia- 

mentary procedure should be given. 

5. Public Addresses. The ability to address an audience ef- 

fectively and to make an acceptable speech for school 
occasions should be developed. The ability to preside 
satisfactorily at meetings of a class or club is of im- 
portance, and pujDils should have practice at such meet- 
ings. 

6. Oral Reading and Delivering Memorized Selections should 

be continued. Aside from the literature prescribed for 
this grade, the great orations and poems furnish ma- 
terial for interpretation. 

7. Dramatization. The reading and discussion of some of the 

best of the contemporary dramas, with a view to 
presentation of one or more of these by a selected cast. 

F. Study of Versification. A review should be given of the work of 
previous grades. Exercises in scansion, in the classification of 
feet, lines, and stanzas, and in verse writing should be con- 
tinued. 

III. Literature. 

A. For intensive study. 

Group 1. Poetry. 

The anthology should afford the material for the intensive study 
of poetry. The teacher should be very careful of her daily 
preparation, for poetry, when taught this way, can yield 
much by way of pleasure and profit. Memory work should 
be frequent. 

Group 2. Drama. 

(Select two.) 

1. Shakespeare — Macbeth or Hamlet. 

2. Shakespeare — Midsummer Night's Dream. 

3. Yeats — The Land of Heart's Desire, The Hour Glass. 



—37— 

Group 3. Essays and Speeches. 
(Select two.) 

1. Carlyle — Essay on Burns. 

2. Lamb — Dissertation on Roast Pig, Dream Children. 

3. Macauiay — Life of Johnson. 

4. Ruskin — Sesame and Lilies. 

5. Burke — Speech on Conciliation. 

B. For outside reading. 

Ficiion. 

(Read four.) 

1. Austen — Pride and Prejudice. 

3. Barrie — Margaret Ogilvy. 

3. Galsworthy — The Patrician. 

4. Eliot— Mill on the Floss, Romola. 

5. Mrs. Graskill — Cranford. 

6. Kingsley — Westward Ho. 

7. Thackeray — Henry Esmond. 

8. Bronte — Jane Eyre. 

9. Kipling — Kim. 

10. De Morgan — Joseph Vance. 

Biography. 
(Read two.) 

1. Boswell — Life of Samuel Johnson. 

3. Bryce — Studies in Contemporary Biography. 

3. Chesterton — Life of Dickens. 

4. Stevenson — Letters. 

Drama. 

(Read One.) 

1. Galsworthy — Justice. 

3. Kennedy — The Servant in the House. 

3. Yeats— The Land of Heart's Desire. 



—38- 



WRITTEN COMPOSITION 



SOURCE OF THEMES. 
1. From Liieraiure. 

The subject matter of the themes of students of small-town high 
schools is ai>t to be narrow in range and lacking in polish of diction: 
on the other hand, the themes show a keenness of observation and an 
intensity of apj^reciation of the interesting, which is not characteristic 
of the students in cities. Such schools are apt to produce classes of 
eager readers, and the libraries often show certain volumes that have 
been literally read to pieces. These children have an unusual ability 
to project themselves into the thoughts, ])roblems and situations of the 
characters of the books which they read. The wise teacher of the small- 
town high school should take advantage of this fact. She should make 
great efforts toward enlarging her library. She should order largely 
of standard books of fiction, an excellent list of which may be found 
on pages 22-30, Bulletin 91, of the State Department of Education. 
She should carefully assign suitable books to certain students, selecting 
at first books sufficiently simple to render reading a pleasure to the 
pupil, yet striving gradually to advance him in his taste for good litera- 
ture. Sometimes she may resort to telling the story of the first few 
pages, or any pages that will excite the pupils' curiosity. Let her be 
sure that for this jnirpose she is a good story teller, and an adroit one. 
By careful selections, noting the effect of each offering to the reading 
taste of the pupil, she may gradually raise her standard and make of 
her pupils eager readers. 

Any boy or girl likes to talk about, or even to write about, the book 
he has enjoyed. Its liumorous situations, its ethical problems, its de- 
scriptions, its narrative elements, its characters, its conversations may 
form excellent material for both oral and written composition. 

It is a scarcely disputable conclusion that people who read a great 
deal have, a large vocabiilary, an ability to give out their thoughts in 
complete consecutive sentences, and a power to organize their thoughts 
for clear presentation. In short they acquire a style of their own. They 
borrow from their many associates of the book shelves. As Euskin 
said, they have been in good com])any. and their language shows the 
effect of good company. 

There will be members of almost every high school class wlio are 
capable of sotting out consciously to acquire a style from, their favorite 
authors. This was Benjamin Franklin's method of disciplining him- 
self in composition, and it has been followed by many writers. After 
reading a selection from a favorite author, he practiced shutting his 
book and reproducing the subject matter and the style. We can imagine 
his progress in ])olisli of diction and in clearness and force of sentence 
structure. 

The teachers of English in every town ;ind osjiecially the large towns 
have a new enemy to combat in the growing tendency of the public to 



—39— 

accept the i)icture show version of our great stories instead of the more 
time-absorbing book version. Children's appetites for stories are being 
satisfied by picture sliows — and this means that teachers' struggles to 
make writing an easy, natural habit in tlie men and women of the future 
must be a still more ditficult problem than in the past. Greater efforts 
must be made to cultivate in our students the habit of reading good 
books. 

2. The Student's Own Experience. 

The actual experience of the average boy or girl, if required to be told 
for the sake of the experience alone, is not likely to be interesting to him- 
self or to the reader. Eead the innumerable themes on "Our Picnic 
Saturday" or "A Fishing Trip" assigned each year and see if an inter- 
esting variance will occur once in fifty themes. But assign to the same 
student some more specific theme subject, such as "The Biggest Fish 
Ever Caught in My County," and you will find, probably, in the lines 
of such a narrative, more of the student's observations about fishing and 
fisherfnen than will be develoj)ed in several pages of "A Fishing Trip." 
It behooves the teacher to bend unusual efforts toward selecting definite 
and interesting theme subjects whi'ch will arouse the pupil's interest 
and lead him to select from his experience what may prove interesting 
in the telling. In the last pages of Thomas's "English in the Secondary 
School" (Houghton, Miftlin Co. of Boston) is an excellent list of sug- 
gestive subjects for high school boys and girls. 

3. Current Happenings. 

Every high school boy and girl' should be trained to become familiar 
with the world's work. Current magazines and the newspapers supply 
the source of themes on topics of the day. The healthy interest mani- 
fested by the average American boy and girl in state, national and 
world events, inventions, progress, etc., makes this source of material 
valuable in composition work. 

Jf. Branches of Study Offered in the High School. 

History, the sciences, vocational subjects, etc. offer material for many 
excellent themes. 

A warning should be sounded here to teachers who often assign 
biographies as subjects for written themes. Such subjects usually re- 
sult in compositions which are little more than compilations, and the 
temptation to the pupil to take the material solidly from the original 
source is scarcely fair. These and short stories taken from the smaller 
magazines are often blue-pencilled by the English supervisors, with the 
label, "Drawn too heavily from original source." It is well to teach the 
students what plagiarism means, and it is well for the teacher to realize 
that to accept such M-ork is to discourage honesty and originality. 
Biographies, however, make excellent theme subjects for oral composi- 
tions, as do also short stories of standard writers, these being used 
merely for practice in oral expression and command of language. 



INTEREST IN THE SUBJECT. 

Whatever the source, the subject matter should be full of interesting 
possibilities and should be adapted to the ability of the student. The 
raising of the standard of the subject matter as the class progresses 
depends upon the generalship of the teacher. The most inarticulate 
man can be made to talk on a subject that interests him sufficiently, 
and the most illiterate person becomes eloquent when fired with a 
subject of strong personal appeal. There was once a boy in a certain 
Texas schoolroom who had spent the seven years of his school life as a 
drag to his classes. He was nimble enough in mischief and in the 
invention of amusing contrivances to engage the attention of all the 
hapless students about him. His eyes and his fingers were quick, but 
it was only when a teacher or a parent was standing over him that a 
text-book claimed his attenfion. Then heaven sent him a real teacher. 
One day she heard in the room a metallic, methodical ticking, to which 
she listened intently and which she then traced to its source. The boy 
had installed dry-celled batteries in his desk and had connected them 
with fine copper wires to the desk of every boy or girl in the room who 
had also set up dry-celled batteries. A bent iron rod from an old buggy 
shaft served as the connection, and a crude code of remarkably faint 
clicks set up telegraphic communications all over the room. When the 
. teacher was sure that she knew the source of the clicks, she walked 
back to the boy's desk and asked to be shown the contrivance. The boy 
sullenly exposed it, little by little. She was astounded, but he was 
more — she Avas appreciative. 

"Who taught you how to make these connections?" she asked. 

"Nobody"; the voice was still sullen. 

"But," exclaimed the teacher, "this is splendid ! Why, I doubt if the 
boys in the ninth grade could do better than this, and here you are in 
the fifth grade. Explain your telegraph system to me and to the 
children." 

It was the boy's first sustained oral composition. The teacher, watch- 
ing him through appraising eyes, realized the force of his short, clear 
sentences, and his straight drive toward his climax. His composition 
M^as trim, concise, direct, and — unconscious ! 

"Excellent !" she exclaimed, and she meant more than the boy could 
guess. "What else can you make?" 

The boy's face glowed. He could make innumerable things. And 
he could tell her well how he had made them. Hadn't he been "mak- 
ing things" since ho could remeniber, and hadn't he suffered enough 
for them ! 

"Won't you write down for my little brother in L exactly how 

you have done these things?" she asked him the next day. 

Then came his trouble. He had refused to learn any of the laws of 
making one's thoughts clear on paper, and the task was all Imt over- 
powering; but she had completely Avon his heart, and he felt that he 
must make his explanations clear and presentable to her little brother. 

She hunted up all the simple experiments in physics that she knew, 
and she enlisted friends to help her to find others. Then she placed 
the directions for these experiments in the boy's hands. Alas, he was 



—41— 

again in the slough of despond; })e was a very poor reader. Again she 
spurred him on with a concrete incentive: how could be ever hope to get 
very far with his inventions if he could not read what great men had 
written about them, and if he could not write out his own opinions and 
discoveries about them ? He must soon reach the high school classes 
where he could learn the principles governing the contrivances that he 
loved so much. 

The interest that that teacher took in the boy's home surroundings 
(where the father assured her that he had "half beaten Jim to death 
trying to make him leave off them fool inventions and 'tend to his 
lessons"), her faithful standing by him in his belated effort to reach the 
high school, her encouraging of his undeniable genius in his high 
school days and through the time he later spent in a technical school, 
and the part that that very genius played in the great war, are all 
another story; but it is an ever recurring fact that any real teacher can 
find some subject about which any boy can both talk and write inter- 
estedly. With natural inclinations as the base of operations, the scope 
of subjects that can be attempted fruitfully depends in a large measure 
upon the teacher. Let the teacher always remember this: Excepting 
the first three years of the baby^s life, there is no period in the life of 
the human being where the curve of development is greater than during 
the four years of the high school period. What this will Ix; depends 
upon the teacher. The raw material is in every high scliool rootn in 
Texas. 

THE GRADING OF THEMES. 

"Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing 
an exact man." — Bacon. 

Perhaps the most fractious thorn-in-the-side questions in th(! teaching 
of English are: (1) Is there any way to do away with the grading of 
papers? (2) How many papers should be graded? (3) How may the 
burden of grading papers be minimized ? 

There are notable members of Texas educational circles who say that 
it is necessary to grade only a few papers out of each set of themes 
handed in; that the emphasis of composition should be oral composi- 
tion ; hence, so much theme work is not necessary. 

The Committee on the Reorganization of English in the Secondary 
High Schools, in making its report to the N. E. A., failed to make any 
set stipulations concerning these troublesome questions. For several 
years in the Texas State Department of Education it has been the 
opinion of those in charge of the English section that not less than one 
short written theme each week should be required of the eighth and 
ninth grades, and not less than one longer theme once in two weeks 
should be required of the tenth and eleventh grades. A careful exami- 
nation of the bulletins of the English departments of the various states 
over the United States shows this requirement to be about the standard 
minimum. 

The ser-ond question above, How many papers should be graded ? 
seems to find its answer in the opinions of many experirmced English 
teachers: It is harmful to require from pupils written paj-Kjrs fhat the 
teacher does not read and does not discuss with them afterward. Any 



—42— 

experienced teacher knows tlie jisychologieal result on the chikl of hand- 
ing in papers from which he receives no report; his next work is pro- 
portionately careless. 

Is there any way to do away with the grading of papers? To this 
question, a negative reply must be given, if the teacher desires to 
achieve results worth while. But there are ways of minimizing the 
drudgery of paper grading. 

It is a recognized fact that excellent results are obtainable from oral 
composition. Oral and written English are complementary, each to the 
other. The writing of compositions aids the child in the ability to 
speak in clear, correct, effective English, and the pupil who expresses 
his thoughts readily in speech is likely to show ability in writing. Oral 
composition cannot displace the weekly written theme ; but oral work 
aids in the development of the pupil and thus lessens the drudgery of 
reading work that is lacking in interest. 

Well-prepared outlines result in themes more easily graded than are 
the "take-my-pen-in-hand" papers. 

While at least half of the written themes should be carefully marked 
and returned to the pupil, much drudgery can be avoided by merely 
reading and grading the others, without marking the errors or writing 
upon them the teacher's criticisms. 

In reading these, the teacher selects a few of the best and a few of 
the poorest papers which are read to the class and criticisms invited. 
From some of the papers, paragraphs or sentences are cut. These are 
handed to pupils who ])lace them upon the blackboard for detailed 
criticism and improvement. Care is taken not to reveal the names of 
the writers whose work may excite adverse criticism of the class, and 
the teacher must show that what is expected is not condemnation, but 
constructive suggestions. Good work should receive generous praise, and 
the names of those who have won praise should be given to the class, as 
a reward of effort. 

The teacher should try to weed out certain general errors through 
blanket instruction, and she can vigorously insist that those errors shall 
not reappear with each paper. 

We learn to write by writing, and each high school student in the 
high schools of Texas has a right to individvial instructioii in the 
matter of written composition, throughout every year that he will attend 
the high school. No other subject in the curriculum battles constantly 
with such adverse currents as does English. We are forced to admit 
that of all subjects taught, it is the most important, since all other 
subjects must be communicated through the medium of English ; and yet 
we give less time to the teaching of English than to the teaching of any 
other subject. It is the opinion of the writer of this bulletin that the 
reason for this disproportionate allowance of time to the subject of 
English is found in the fact that so few superintendents and principals 
teach English or have taught this subject. 

Let us examine the amount of time which the teacher must devote to 
English. The maximum number of students per day that a school 
credited with the fourth unit in English may assign to any one teacher 
is 185. This means that each English teacher must grade 125 themes 
a week, or 25 themes or the equivalent every day. An expert grader 



—43— 

may peiha|)s dispose of a theme in each four minutes. This means that 
100 minutes or two and one-fourth periods each da}' must be spent in 
intensive work, in addition to what is required of the other teachers in 
the school. Moreover, it is usually the English teacher who has charge 
of the debating societies, the school papers, and any class plays or other 
entertainments which are given. No allowance is made for any of 
these things when the duties of the various teachers are assigned at the 
beginning of each term. The English teacher is given as many duties 
of supervision as is any other teacher in the school. Every period finds 
her busy with school routine, five periods being devoted to her actual 
classroom work. She spends her free period in consultation, and the 
end of each day finds her with 100 extra minutes of exacting work 
before her, after the school hours are finished, in addition to the work 
of preparing for each day's recitations. 

It is not only the teacher who suffers from this kind of division of 
labor, for she can do no more than use the time at her disposal, but it is 
the high school English classes. The business men's persistent query, 
"What is the matter with the students of high school English classes 
when they come to us ?" receives much of its answer in this one state- 
ment : Not enough time is given to the teachers of English, in schools 
of more than 75 English students. No subject in the curriculum needs 
the individual allotment of time and the laboratory method of handling 
subject matter as does English; yet no other subject in the curriculum 
is taught as collectively and as generally as is English. 

The writer offers to young or inexperienced teachers of English a 
combination of observed methods which she hopes may be of some serv- 
ice, since it offers effective teaching possibilities, and adds to the pre- 
ceding suggestions as to minimizing 'the burden of theme grading. 

Note. — This suggestion for gTading them.es is offered to the over- 
crowded teacher. At least it is better than to allow themes to pile up 
ungraded. 

This plan, as are all good plans, is effective only when it is a part of 
an organization of subject matter which extends through grade after 
grade systematically. At first, attempts at this plan will very likely 
seem a failure, since the learning of English is a process of growth. 



The teacher of English in a certain school meets her ninth grade 
English class on "theme day." "Theme days" for that class are always 
a certain day of the week — say Tuesday. The subject of the theme has 
been carefully assigned, perhaps has even been used for oral themes, by 
two or three members of the class. 

When the class is assembled, the themes are collected and so re- 
distributed that no child has his own theme. The pupils busily begin 
to read the themes before them, pencil in hand. They may underscore 
or call attention to any error which they see in the theme in their hands. 

The teacher begins by calling for misspelled words. Hands are raised 
and words found incorrect in the papers are reported correctly spelled, 
and correctly written on the board, in a clear handwriting. That 
will be the "black list" for several davs. 



11 

The teacher then quickl}^ reviews the form of the paper: (1) It 
must be written in ink, (2) the heading must be on the first line, every 
word beginning with a capital letter, and the second line is skipped, 
(3) right and left hand margins are observed, and paragraph indentions 
must be clear, (4) the general appearance of the paper must be neat, 
(5) handwriting must be legible. 

Hands raised over the room call for the privilege of speaking and a 
few papers are criticized and discussed in regard to the items just men- 
tioned. Any student who is attentive is able to judge the correctness 
of the paper before him by the discussion of the class. 

Without attempting in any measure to exhaust the number of mis- 
takes in the items above, the teacher swings into the next items of 
criticism : 

Paragraph Structure: The topic sentence of each paragraph is 
lightly underlined, or if the topic is not stated, a light line the length 
of the margin indicates it. If material not on the topic appears in a 
paragraph, the unit is questioned. 

Sentence Structure: If an incomplete sentence appears, that is, if 
a phrase or a clause is used as a sentence, the criticism, S^, appears in 
the margin. If more than one thought occurs in the sentence, S, is 
placed in the margin. Six or seven of the questioned sentences are put 
on the board, and the help of the class enlisted in the recasting of them. 
This affords excellent opportunity for the class to see long, disconnected 
sentences changed into closely knit complex or periodic sentences. The 
teacher must impress the fact that we do not want every sentence to be 
a complex or a periodic sentence; but that complex and periodic sen- 
tences are the most forceful sustained sentences, and that they are the 
most difficult of all sentences to learn to make. This exercise affords an 
opportunity to use the child^s own material. It also affords an excel- 
lent opportunity for her to teach the proper position of phrases with 
regard to the words which they modify and of relative clauses to their 
antecedents. It may also furnish material for exercises in punctuation. 
It gives an opportunity to show how whole clauses or phrases may be 
condensed, or perhaps expressed by one choice word. It is an excellent 
chance to point out meaningless words and phrases, and to show the 
value of variety in sentence length and structure. 

Punctuation: Deliberately, the teacher goes down the list of punc- 
tuation marks, calling for violations of the most outstanding u.ses of 
the signals. 8he has taught those signals, one by one, painstakingly and 
carefully, and now she ex]>ects to find results in practice. 

1. The period. At the close of all declarative and imperatiA'^e 
sentences. She should ask for examples of failure to place period at 
end of sentences or after all abbreviations. She will follow this by ask- 
ing questions about the following uses, as sho\Mi in the compositions: 

2. Question marks and exclamation points. 

3. Capitalization. 

4. The semicolon. 

5. The colon. 

6. The comma. 



(1) Case of address. 

(3) Series of words, phrases, or clauses. 

(3) Direct quotations. 

(4) Phrases, or clauses, or sometimes words, preceding sub- 

jects. 

(5) Long independent clauses of compound sentences. 

(6) JSTon-restrictive clauses of compound sentences. 

(7) Independent elements. 

(8) Words, phrases, or clauses in apposition. 

(9) Dates. 

7. Quotations (direct and indirect). 

8. The apostrophe. 

9. The dash. 

10. Italics (foreign words). 

11. Brackets. 

Content. — (It is a very good plan to give two grades on each theme — 
one for form and one for content. By this plan the child who hands 
in a neat paper with nothing in it can be made to see wherein she is 
lacking, and the boy who thinks vigorously but who does not pay proper 
attention to details of form can be showoi what stands between him and 
satisfactory work. The final grade on the paper is not an average of 
these two grades, unless each is a passing grade.) 

The teacher, when she has completed the review on the form of the 
pajjer, asks for extracts from papers which are unusually good in con- 
tent. She has taught her students to appreciate a particularly happy 
choice of a word or a phrase; a clever dialogue; a flash of humor; a 
dramatic situation; a good characterization; a forceful description; a 
direct narration; a striking climax; a skillful summary or ending. It 
is not necessary for the entire paper to be read in order for the class 
to see what the grader of that paper has gleaned as its best points or its 
point that is worthy of the time of the class. 

This method is valuable because it holds before the class an incentive 
to offer at least one paragraph which is worth reading, it teaches the 
students to appreciate the good points in each other's attempts at ex- 
pression, and it trains the students to appreciate the above-named points 
in literature, without discouraging them about their own and each oth- 
er's efforts. 

The teacher may then call for the themes which any students consider 
are worth the time of the class to hear. After the reading of each such 
theme, the reader is challenged to tell why the theme he read is par- 
ticularly good. He defends his Judgment, and the class discusses his 
statements. Perhaps he has read a whole theme because he wanted to 
make evident one particular quality which he thought unusually excel- 
lent. The class may judge whether or not he was right. The author 
of such a theme or part of a theme should feel encouragement and satis- 
faction, and the teacher should so manipulate recitations that different 
authors even the most backward authors, should have read at various 
times some contributions, if only a sentence or two, provided that such 
contributions are really worthy. 



— i6— 

It will be seen that in such a lesson on themes as has been outlined 
above, practically the whole subject of composition and rhetoric is re- 
viewed in its most elementary working princi])les. Such a lesson can 
be conducted in less than forty-five minutes only after many weeks of 
training of the students to see the things they are looking for. The 
graders mark lightly with pencil the errors that they find and that 
afternoon the teacher, with that set of jjapers fresh in her mind, reads 
them and calls for her ]3oints of revision, returning the themes the next 
day, calling for consultations where necessary, and on the next com- 
position day asks to see the revisions that have been made. The speed 
and dispatch of such a recitation depend upon the energy and skill of 
the teacher, as does also its value to the pupil. 

The advantages of such training are fourfold : It helps the teacher 
actually to read every paper that is handed in; it trains the students to 
know what will be demanded of his theme ; it offers an incentive to him 
to do his best, both as to subject matter and as to expression, and it 
gives him a standard with which to compare his oral and written dis- 
course long aiter high school days are forgotten. 

METHODS OF EEVISION OF THEMES. 

The question often arises : When shall the entire theme be required 
to be rewritten, and when may only parts of it be required? 

Much depends upon the length of the theme, and much depends upon 
the nature of the errors. If the fault lies in the unity of the para- 
graph, the entire paragraph should be recast. If the fault lies in the 
connectives, or the "hooks and eyes" of sentences and paragraphs, per- 
haps the pupil can get the same benefit from, changing these alone that 
he would receive from a complete rewriting of the paragraph. If the 
error is in sentence structure, the weak sentences should be completely 
recast. If the error is in spelling, the misspelled words, if there are not 
too many of them, may be corrected on some parallel space. Errors in 
punctuation are apt to be so closely interwoven with sentence structure 
that the same rules apply to correction : revise the whole sentence, un- 
less the punctuation marks can be inserted without disturbing the order 
of the sentence. The object nf the revision of his theme by the pupil is 
to prevent his repeating a like error. The teacher must hold this object 
steadily in her mind, and use her omti judgment about how best to 
attain her objective. 

The readers of the papers sul)iiiitted to flic State Dcjiartmcnt for the 
accrediting of English report that teachers often require their students to 
copy the errors of a theme, and then to write the correction opposite each 
error. Such a method has the psychological disadvantage of fixing the 
incorrect version as firmly on the mind of the student as the correct 
version, thereby leaving him to be confused afterwards as to which is 
preferable. Perhaps a better way would be to write only tlie correct 
version on a clear sheet, opposite the error. 



—47- 



ORAL COMPOSITION 



"The general purpose of teaching oral expression in the schools is to 
make possible in the lives of the people an accurate, forceful, living 
si^eech, which shall be adequate for ordinary intercourse and capable of 
expressing the thoughts and emotions of men and women in other rela- 
tions in life." — Report on Committee on Oral Expression, Bulletin 1912, 
No. 2, Bureau of Education. 

The immediate aims of teaching oral expression are summed up by 
the above named committee under the ability: 

(1) To answer questions intelligently and fully; 

(2) To converse agreeably; 

(3) To collect and organize material for oral discourse; 

(4) To present effectively in a natural environment material already 
organized ; 

(5) To join courteously and pertinently in informal discussion; 

(6) To read aloud in such a way as to present the writer^s thought 
and spirit; and 

(7) For those who have or hope to develop, qualities of leadership, 
the ability to address an audience, or to conduct a public meeting. 

Activities in Oral Expression. — The activities that lead to the ac- 
complishment of these aims may be broadly grouped under training in : 

1. Mechanics of Oral Expression, such as breathing, vocalization, 
posture and gesture, and phonetics. 

2. Oral Reading. — Oral reading can profitably be employed at all 
stages in the elementary and the high school. Reading that endeavors 
to be natural and expressive will benefit all branches of English study. 
The choicest passages from great fiction, poetry, oratory, and drama 
make good material for these exercises. 

3. Recitation and Declamation. — Memorizing and reciting good 
passages from literature, gives large meaning and interest to the study 
of great poetry and prose. Care should be taken to avoid encouraging 
an artificial delivery. 

4. Dramatics. — (a) In the study of Shakespeare, teachers often 
employ the dramatic method of having the plays acted in whole or in 
part by the class, and in the study of dramatic poetry and prose fiction 
by dramatizing scenes and acting them. 

(b) Class plays. 

5. Conversation. 

6. Extern pora neons Speech. — Talks in which the thought has been 
carefully prepared and in which the thought as well as the language 
and form of address are given attention and criticism by the class should 
be arranged for, especially in the later years of the his-h school course. 
Among the different projects that may be successfully employed for 
such exercises are: Roport« upon current topics, relation of personal 



—48— 

experience, story telling, speeches of presiding officers, after-dinner 
speeches, and reports upon supplementary reading, etc. To make this 
work of the largest value the principles of logical arrangement should be 
insisted on throughout. 

7. Debate. — Instruction and practice in debating can be made of 
large value in teaching English. It gives occasion for intense mental 
effort in analysis and encourages effective expression as do few other 
exercises. Debates organized by class teams with uncommitted argu- 
ments, before the school or club and occasionally in public, if carefully 
supervised by competent teachers, are of value. Care should be taken 
to secure accurate information, clear thinking, natural expression, and 
a reasonable attitude toward opponents. The social value of this exer- 
cise, with its lessons of mutual dependence and helpfulness, is an im- 
portant by-product. 

8. The Formal Address or Oration was once used extensively as a 
rhetorical exercise and for the commencement program, but has given 
way to a considerable extent to the less formal speech. It is still use- 
ful, however, as a supplement to the other form, especially when occa- 
sions can be utilized that will give a special significance to the utterance. 
National and State holidays, birtlidays of poets and famous men, or 
other special occasion, afford suitable opportunities for such exercises. 
This form of exercise should come late in the course and should be care- 
fully supervised to secure dignified treatment of worthy themes. 

The author is leaving a full discussion of the subject of oral expression 
to be read from the Eeport of the Committee on Oral Expression, since 
a lengthy quotation, however valuable, from an available source is 
obviously unnecessary in this bulletin. She will attempt to discuss only 
the two following phases of oral expression : 

(1) The time to be devoted to oral expression in the classroom. 

(2) The organization or principles of arrangement of oral discourse. 

Time. A review of "The Immediate Aims of Teaching Oral Expres- 
sion" in the paragraph quoted above will show us that Aims (1), (4), 
and (5) fall directly within the duties of every teacher of the high school, 
and can in no measure fall as a responsibility of the English teacher alone. 
Every teacher in the high school should require students reciting to him 
"to answer questions intelligently and fully." "To present effectively 
in natural environment material already organized" pertains as much 
to the recitation in history or mathematics, or vocational subjects, or the 
sciences as it does to the English recitation. The pertinent point is 
that the students should be required to present such material effectively, 
in correct English, and with attention to preserving its organization. 
Only then does it become directed oral English. "To join courteously 
and pertinently in informal discussions" is an ability which must be 
developed by the efforts of every tfeacher whom the students meet during 
a day in school. 

Aims (2), (3), (6), and (7) are pritnarily duties of the teacher of 
English. Number fi, "To read aloud in such a way as to present the 
writer's thought and spirit," is a part of the study of literature. Num- 
ber 7, "For those who have,, or hope to develop, qualities of leadc-rship, 
the ability to address an audience, or to conduct a public meeting" there 



—49— 

should be, if possible, a class in public speaking. In the smaller classes 
where individual attention is possible, those who have forensic ability 
will soon show their talent, and the teacher should never lose an oppor- 
tunity to push them forward in school societies, school meetings, church 
gatherings, and municipal affairs. The development of such students 
should extend, as quickly as possible, beyond the limits of the English 
classroom. Number 3, "To converse agreeably" is an important art, 
and while all of the work in composition aids in developing this power 
in the pupil, it cannot be developed in the schoolroom alone. Special 
exercises such as oral and ^vritten dialogue, and informal talks with the 
class will be found helpful. 

Aim No. (3), "To collect and organize material for oral discourse" 
is the one of the seven aims under discussion which really opens up the 
question of how much time should be devoted to oral composition in the 
English classroom, and when such compositions should occur. We have 
already seen that both the aims and the activities encompassed in the 
term oral expression include all the students' conversation all the day — 
not only in the schoolroom, but outside as well, the only difference being 
that in the schoolroom the oral expression should be directed oral ex- 
pression. 

The teacher who would teach oral composition — the principles gov- 
erning the organization of thought and its delivery in the simplest, 
most straightforward, effective wa}^ — realizes (1) she must enlist the 
assistance of the pupils' home influences, (2) she must have the sympa- 
thetic assistance of the other teachers whom the child meets during his 
day in school, and (3) she must make her objective clear to the child 
himself. She realizes that to her falls the duty of teaching the prin- 
ciples governing the organization and the delivery of thought, but 
that the other teachers, the parents, and the child himself must help 
her to put into constant execution the principles that she teaches. 

(1) Home Influences. 

Efforts at correcting habits of bad grammar must never cease, since 
outside influences forming such habits are constantly at work. The 
author offers extract from an article ^vritten by L. W. Eader, Director 
of Vocational Education, St. Louis, Missouri, which was published in 
the Bulletin of the Illinois Association of Teachers of English, November 
1, 1919, which offers some excellent suggestions to every teacher of 
English : 

"* * * The teachers, after several years of united effort in trying 
to raise the standard of speech, concluded that this standard could be 
raised only by helpful influences outside the classroom. With this com- 
mon purpose in mind we began a campaign for soliciting the cooperation 
of the home and of companions in this important task. 

"In order to get the desired results, we realized that in most cases 
these companions of our children must not only be instructed in the 
correct use of English, but must be given most direct suggestions for 
correcting and checking up speech ; and in giving such directions, our 
print shop was made a great factor. We sent into each home such 
simple instructions as would, first, help the parent, and, second, help 



—50— 

the home companions to assist us in our efforts to improve speech. In- 
stead of placing a cultural value upon correct speech to insure greater 
cooperation^ we have emphasized the commercial value. During last 
year we sent into every home of our district, printed notes pointing out 
in a clear manner, methods and means by which the home may assist 
us in a great work. Eight of these notes were prepared and used as 
teachers saw their needs. Other schools will no doubt find entirely 
different conditions demanding different methods of attack. 

"These leaflets were sent home at any time and in any number, when- 
ever the teachers felt language conditions justified. Leaflet No. 1 was 
sometimes sent into the homes of pupils of the eighth grade. Leaflet 
No. 8 is used in any of the intermediate grades when the stage of the 
child's development calls for spoken speech in one or more paragraphs. 

Note 1. 
"To Parents : Columbia School. 

"The use of good language is not only evidence of a good education 
on the part of your boy or girl, but it also means, in this day of sharp 
competition in the business world, dollars and cents for the boy or girl 
who can face an employer and use accurate and concise speech, 

"Good language is the result of habit. Habit comes as the result of 
practice. 

"Your child is under the influence of the teacher but one-eighth of 
the time during a year. During this brief time the school can do little 
in forming habits of correct speech, unless the home cooperate with the 
school. This we kindly ask you to do. 

"We are now attempting to fix the habit of using: 



1. 


I saw you 


instead of 


I seen you. 


2. 


I have no pencil 






I ain't got no pencil, 


3. 


Give me a book 






Gimme a book. 


4. 


I came to school 






I come to school. 


5. 


I did it 






I done it. 


6. 


We ate the apple 






We et the apple. 


7. 


My pencil is broken 






My pencil is broke. 


8. 


She can get it 






She can git it. 


9. 


It was I 






It was me. 


0. 


He and I play 






Me and him play. 



"The home can do little in helping the school teach spelling, writing, 
or arithmetic, but in fixing the habit of correct speech the school can 
do little at this early age without the cooperation of the home. En- 
courage your child to use the correct form as given above. In this you 
can cooperate with the school and help us to help your child. We ask 
your assistance. 

Note 2. 
"To Parents: Columbia School. 

"Of all institutions engaged in the education of the child, the home 
is by far the strongest factor in the formation of habit. The church 
and the school do a great work in supplementing the training in habit- 
formation by the home, yet it still remains the function of the home to 



—51— 

plant, cultivate, and bring to maturity such cardinal virtues, as obedience, 
industry, courtesy, promi^tness, etc. 

"Ask the successful business men when and where they acquired these 
habits, and most of them will tell you that these virtues or habits are 
the results of early home training. All the efforts of other institutions 
to develop good habits independently of the influence of a healthy- 
minded home, are imperfect substitutes. 

"Good language is a habit. It must be mastered by practice, not by 
rule. Correct use of language for a few hours each day of but five days 
in a week, while the language of the child is unsupervised during a 
much longer period, has failed to develop this habit, as all teachers will 
testify. 

"The purpose of this note is to give the home an opportunity of 
cooperating in a most effective way with the school in trying to fix 
habits of correct speech. 

"We are making a special effort to have children use: 

1. Just instead of Jist. 



2. 


Catch 


(C c 


Ketch. 


3. 


He threw the ball 


a i 


He throwed the ball. 


4. 


I let him have it 


a i 


I left him have it. 


5. 


May I have the book? 


a I 


Can I have the book? 


6. 


I knew it 


a i 


I knowed it. 


7. 


My father said 


a I 


My father he said. 


8. 


Let me see it 


a ( 


Lemme see it. 


9. 


You were afraid 


a I 


You were scared. 


10. 


I'm not thinking 


'a i 


I ain't thinkin'. 



"A little encouragement from you as to the value of correct speech, 
will greatly influence your child in fixing this habit.* 

"The attitude of the home was most encouraging and the improve- 
ment of speech soon noticeable. Parents and older companions took 
delight in cooperating, and the speech of the playground soon showed 
the results of this influence. 

"Teachers were asked to list responses received from the different 
homes. The following list will show what was done with the leaflets: 

646 Eesponses. 

Tacked on wall 126—20% 

Used in playing school 87 — 13% 

Over dining table 54 — 8% 

In child's private room 78 — 12% 

On glass of cupboard 42 — 7% 

Eeceived correction from parent 63 — 9'% 

Parents took charge of 45 — 6% 

Used in games 27 — 4% 

Read to parents 24 — 4% 



*Space permits the quoting of only two of the letters sent out. 



—52— 

Hung in kitchen 18 — 3% 

Fastened to electric liglit 15 — 3% 

579 
Lost 66—10% 

645 
Cursed teacher for not doing her work 1 



646 



"L. W. Rader, 

"Director of Vocational Education, St. Louis, Mo." 

(2) The Assistance of ihe Other Teachei's of the Same Faculty. 

The Committee on Classified and Accredited High Schools of Texas 
has recognized the English teaches' need of assistance in the forming 
of the habits of correct speech, and is urging attention to English in 
other classrooms by making the following recommendation: "The 
supervisor of English may examine the material submitted in any sub- 
ject from any high school, and if the fundamentals of English are not 
observed throughout the exhibit, may request the English Department 
of that school to resubmit material from the Ejiglish classes to deter- 
mine whether or not affiliation in English may be retained." This 
recommendation throws upon the superintendent of the school the re- 
sponsibility of seeing that the oral and written English of every class- 
room is up to the proper standards. 

(3) Tlte Help of the Child Himself. 

The third factor of assistance which the teacher must have is the 
child himself. He must see and appreciate the objective toward which 
he is striving. His pride must be aroused, his skill must be challenged, 
his ambitions fired, his vision broadened. The child will improve when 
he acquires the desire to speak correctly. 

Orgianized Oral Discourse. 

Now we come to the second phase of oral expression which the author 
will attempt to discuss : organized oral discourse. 

The curriculum of the high school English classes is very full. Oral 
English is at this tim.e enjoying a rush of popularity and exploitation 
wliich swings the pendulum to the farthest length from the classicists. 
It has some unquestioned merits, but it has assumed such proportions 
that it has all but ousted attention to formal grammar and indeed to 
any other kind of grammar, and just now in the English classrooms of 
Texas it holds the unchallenged championship of time-killer. Work 
in oral English should not merely be an opportunity for idle talk; it 
should be planned, systematic, organized. 

Without criticism, the writer M^ould like to describe two recitations rn' 
oral comp'Osition; both of which are typical of what may be found in 
different schoolrooms of Texas : 



—53— 

Number 1. It is "Literary Digest Day" in all the English classes 
throughout a certain school. At the beginning of the class hour under 
observation, the teacher takes her place at the back of the class, and 
with register in hand, calls upon each member of the class in turn to 
recite a topic from the Literary Digest. Each member of the class has 
searched diligently through the magazine for the simplest topic, with 
the result that there is nothing new to the audience in what any child 
has to say. The object of the recitation seems to be to reproduce as 
faithfully as possible the content of the chosen topic from the magazine, 
which the speaker very often holds in her hand and frequently refers to 
as "it said." The topic was organized and digested for the speaker in 
the magazine, hence none of the child's power of organization is exer- 
cised. There is none of the quick thinking so necessary to be developed 
in the ready speaker; there is no ingenuity or initiative or vividness of 
presentation called for. And there is not the incentive of telling a new 
thing to an interested audience and enjoying the power of persuading 
them to see it as the speaker sees it. This is an oral recitation, but it is 
not oral discourse. It has the value of training the class to read the 
Literary Digest, and it teaches the child to face an audience and tell 
something that he knows. 

Kumber 2. The speaker faces his audience, preferably with something 
they have not read. He has been taught that his discourse mvst he or- 
ganized; hence he presents his subiect matter in terms of (1) Subject, 
(2) Introduction, (3) Points of Persuasion, and (4) Conclusion. The 
skeleton on which he hangs his material may show through, but the fail- 
ing it not a bad one at this stage. Without superfluous words or particles 
of words, or gi'unts, he announces his subject or he plunges into the 
heart of his subject with his first sentence, thereby giving his subject 
in the first part of the introduction. The points witli which lie clearly 
and completely outlines his subject matter are welded together logically. 
He drives straight toward his climax with force and uses all his arts 
of persuasion with the details under each point to clinch it in the minds 
of his hearers before leaving it for the next point. His conclusion is a 
terse summary of his points, with perhaps a bit of his art of persuasion 
in the cast of his final sentence. He went before his audience with a 
definite purpose : he intended to make them see a picture as he saw it, 
or to grasp a news item as he grasped it, or to think upon, some de- 
batable subject as he thought, or to tell a story so that his hearers felt 
the same emotions that he experienced. Every point that he advanced 
or reviewed was a direct blow toward his objective, and every word that 
he used was a definite movement in that direction. ^M^ien his last sen- 
tence was closed, he sat down. 

After the four or five oral discourses prepared for the recitation, the 
class was asked for criticisms. It is needless to say that the petty things 
did not claim most of the time, though both the hearers and the speak- 
ers realized that every slip in grammar, every disjointed sentence, every 
stumble limped over with a superfluous particle, such as "well-er," etc., 
cost the speaker the force and charm that should have been his. The 
organization and content of the subject matter, the speaker's force of 
delivery, his power over his hearers, the strength of his climax, the 
conciseness of his summary, claimed most of the comments. 



—Si- 
lt is an excellent exercise to require the class to outline one of the 
discourses given. This should be done in the class, and it is a very good 
exercise for each speaker to receive the outlines of his discourse, and 
criticize them either at that recitation or at one in the near future. 

A few oral themes at different recitations are much better than de- 
voting the whole period to one oral theme after another, unless there 
is the variety which can come only with individual composition. The 
writer once saw this oral recitation in a Texas school in a second year 
class : 

The teacher announced at the beginning of the recitation that the 
audience in that classroom is apt to be requested to imagine itself any 
one of a number of j^ersonalities : a board of trustees, a chamber of 
commerce in session, a municipal gathering, rooters on baseball bleach- 
ers, a ladies' aid society, or "most anything." On this particular day 
we were prospective buyers of real estate. One by one the members of 
the class came before us and tried to sell us real estate. And excellent 
salesmen some of them proved to be. Each talk had been thoroughly 
prepared, the teacher having admonished her class at the assignment of 
the lesson : "When you go into the presence of a busy man, especially 
if you are asking a favor, have what you intend to say clearly in mind; 
say it in a pleasing, courteous way, and then leave !" 

Another interesting recitation in oral discourse in a Texas town was 
as follows : The teacher, without previous notice, announced four or 
five subjects, among them being the following: Keeping up ivith the 
Joneses, Loyalty to the Home Team, Thrift Stamps in Peace Time,- 
Honor on Examinations, My Home Town versus That of Bingville.' 
Each student might choose his subject from those given, make his out- 
line, and. deliver his "speech" when called upon. Six minutes were 
given for the preparation, and jiencils and pads were in demand. Then 
the teacher assigned various points for criticism to different members 
of the class. Some of the students were to watch for superfluous par- 
ticles, like "well," and "er." Different pupils were to watch for errors 
in grammar, for the strength of the outline, for the force of the con- 
clusion, for the value of the details given under each point, for the 
effect of the introduction, for the interest of the speaker, for the effect 
of the speech upon the audience. 

Then the speakers began. As expected, the speeches had a snap, a 
purpose, and a result not often found in a ninth grade schoolroom. 
The business men of that town had a practice of using these students 
for four-minute talks on any subject of public interest. 

Here, it may be said that the four-minute talks of the business men 
during the war might well be taken as the model for all short, or even 
sustained, speeches. Those men seized time from crowds gathered for 
other purposes, hence they must (1) have something to sa}^ (2) say it 
with sledge-hammer blows, (3) say it so that the message would stick, 
and (4) get out of the way. 

Teachers of oral composition in English classrooms may well remem- 
ber that: 

1. The force of logical, clear, organized thought will aid in improv- 
ing sentence structure. 

2. The pride in delivering an oral discourse that gri])s, interests, or 



—65— 

persuades its hearers, will be a great factor in overcoming the speaker's 
habits of bad grammar. 

3. Instruction in oral English should always be positive — never 
negative. 

4. If a child really has something to say, he will want to say it; and 
if he wants to say it, he can be trained to be interested in how to say 
it well. 

5. Conviction of worthy opinions, high emotions over some story, 
keen interest in some exposition, will usually mean eloquence of oral 
discourse, whether the speaker be a famous orator or whether he be the 
dumbest daily toiler. 

6. Any oral theme or oral c(^nposition that is not organized before- 
hand, and that does not follow the lines of previous organization, if 
impromptu, is a waste of the time of an English class. 

7. If the skeleton of the organization shows through the theme 
work of the eighth and ninth grades, let it do so. The habit of plan- 
ning work must be formed, and improvement will follow practice. 

The more securely the framework for oral composition is built, the 
less attention it will demand at later periods. Below is given a sug- 
gested outline for oral themes : 

A. Subject. 

B. Introduction. 

C. Points. 



(a) etc. 

(b) Any details Avhich may make the listener or 
the reader see more clearly the point under 
discussion. 



(a) The "points" should be as closely welded 

(b) together as possible, and the points should 
etc. cover no more space than is absolutely neces- 
sary. The choosing of the "points" and the 
arranging of them, step by step, is the great- 
est art of the builder. 



(a) The details should follow one upon the 

(b) other with a direct purpose. Every detail is 
etc. a link in the chain, and there should be no 

loose links which lead nowhere, hanging to 
the chain of details. 

D. Summary. 

Conclusion. 

A snappy renaming of "points," either outright or in mean- 
ing, and whatever ingenuity of closing the speaker is 
capable of. 



—56— 

BETTER SPEECH WEEK. 

"Better Speech Week" campaign was first launched by the club 
women of Milwaukee, Wisconsin ; it is now carried on under the auspices 
of the club women of the nation, who are asking for the cooperation 
especially of the teachers to make the setting aside of a week in each 
November as Better Speech Week a national institution. 

The teachers of Texas, and especially the English teachers, are urged 
to concentrate u]>on this week as the one in which better speech steps 
to the front of the stage in our schools and proves his worth to our 
young citizens of tomorrow. Through the organization of the club 
women in all their undertakings, and through organization among our- 
selves, we should be able to make froi* year to year great improvement 
in our national speech. Let the English teacher of each school in Texas 
feel it incumbent upon herself to see that Better Speech Weel: in her 
town and school is in results the best in the country. 

Usually the newspapers, the business houses, the moving picture shows, 
the men's and women's clubs, and the children themselves will cooperate 
in any program planned. Posters, parades, plays, four-minute speeches, 
etc., are means of spreading the propaganda. 

Some helpful suggestions for Better Speech programs may be obtained 
as follows : 

"Daily Lessons in English," by C. R. Rounds, State Normal School, 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (10 cents per copy if ordered in lots of ten 
from the author.) 

"Guide to American Speech Week," Crumpton. Obtain from James 
Hosic, National Council of Teachers of English, 506 W. Sixty-ninth 
Street, Chicago, 25 cents per copy. 

Posters, slogans, etc., may be obtained from American Speech Com- 
mittee, Chicago Woman's Club, 410 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago. 

Plays for Better Speech Movement: 

"The Magic Voice," Prang Co., 1923 Calumet Avenue, Chicago, 111.,, 
50 cents. 

"Good English Program," March Brothers, Lebanon, Ohio, 25 cents. 

"Downfall of Poor Speech,/' March Brothers, Lebanon, Ohio, 25 cents. 



—57- 



LITERATURE 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES TO BE CONSIDERED IN FORMING A 
COURSE IN LITERATURE. 

There are certain fuudameiital principles, a consideration of which 
will help in the formation of high school courses in Hterature. The 
general aims of literature teaching apply to all schools, even the most 
practical, but to attain them, var3dng means must be emploj^ed to meet 
varying conditions. In the past the course of study has been shaped 
solely for the academic curriculum, and has presupposed no variety in 
needs, tastes, or mental background. On the contrary, the greatest 
diversity exists; consequently, different types of literature should be 
stressed in different types of schools, and the treatment should vary to 
suit the conditions. 

1. In a purely academic or classical curriculum the course in litera- 
ture may with safety be made more frankly literary than in any other 
type. The student may be encouraged to linger more in the past; to 
learn the facts of literary history and to read to know what the world has 
produced that is fine and lasting. He may be led to a conscious exami- 
nation of literary types, and may be introduced more definitely to the 
study of literature as an art. We need give less attention with him to 
contemporary writers. He has definitely entered upon a prolonged 
course of studies, and it may be taken for granted that he will get, 
somewhere along the way, a good deal of modern literature that students 
going directly from high school to practical life must get early if they 
are to receive it at all; moreover, we may with some confidence rely on 
his classroom work to form standards of taste that will make him at the 
end of his high school course a safe guide for himself in the field of 
contemporary literature. 

2. The course in literature for vocational and technical curricula 
must never lose sight of the fact that its reason for being is its inspira- 
tional value. It may present any literature that the pupils can grasp 
which is full of power to stimulate by reason of its broad human interest. 
Students in such curricula will usually profit more by the study of 
literature that is objective and positive than that which is more delicate 
and imaginative. 

3. The rural school presents still other problems. In general, the 
development of the country boy and girl, both mental and spiritual, is 
slower than that of young people in cities and large towns. The coun- 
try furnishes little community life; therefore many opportunities for 
entertainment and instruction are lacking that city children enjoy. The 
home life, with its long hours of labor, offers little to stimulate mental 
growth beyond the narrow range of family interests. Books are hard 
to get ; libraries are poorly developed, if they exist at all ; magazines 
and newspapers are beyond the reach of many; the country grammar 
school, too, is usually far less thorough and stimulating than that of the 
city. As a result, the high school can coimt on practically no founda- 
tion for culture, but must build often from the bottom u]). Where such 



—58— 

<c'oiidilioiis exist, no greater lack of wisdom could be shown than to 
attempt to teach the course of study suited to the more highly stimu- 
lated youth of the city. The pace set must be slower, the literature 
must be simpler, the treatment must be more concrete and objective; 
moreover, the course must furnish, especially at the beginning, some- 
thing of the .great body of folk lore, fahle, legend, myth, and hero story 
which has, almost without help, become a part of the mental life of 
•children in communities of a higher intellectual development, and h.as 
furnished a foundation upon which, in all our higher work in literature, 
we have constantly b.uilt. It is our special duty, in the rural school, 
to open up this practically unknown world of the imagination, ranging 
freely over it, until the country boy and girl are caught by its glamour 
and are willing to linger in its beauty and splendor. That the task 
is hard, the facilities few, and most of those working in this field are 
jet inadequate to it, only makes greater the need that we should clearly 
see the piece of work that is waiting to l)e done, for only so can even a 
beginning be made. 

4. The time allotment, as well as the course, may well differ in 
different curricula. Students preparing for a liberal arts college should 
be ahle to get along with less time for literature; partly because they 
will, in most cases, start with a better literary inheritance, and partly 
because, through their other languages and their later education, they 
will get far more. The time allotment should be increased in curricula 
where vocational work is stressed. This applies especially to the final 
year in short-course vocational curricula and to rural schools. 

5. In the larger schools, in which more than one section of a given 
subject is necessary, the regular literature courses may be profitably en- 
riched by elective courses. It is rarely .possible to find literature appeal- 
ing equally to all members of a class, no matter what the type of school 
nor how thoughtful the selection, and yet the necessities of the present 
public school system preclude the absolutely individual method of teach- 
ing. Students in their senior year, or — if well trained — in their junior 
year, may wisely be permitted to follow their strongest interests, either 
by electives taken as options or as supplementary to the regular courses. 
Pupils who do not expect to attend college will profit especially by such 
courses. A real advantage, sometimes overlooked, is the stimulus to a 
teacher that may come from the opportunity of being able to do some- 
thing fresh and original in the elective course. For this reason the 
planning of the course should be in the liands of the individual teacher. 

CHANGES NEEDED IN THE METHODS OF TEACHING.* 

The idea still obtains among administrative officers that any one with 
ordinary intelligence and common sense can teach. literature, and it is 
still deplorably easy to find teachers ready to undertake this work, who 
have no special preparation for teaching it and little knowledge of the 
subject. Sucli an approach to the work means inevitable failure and 
is the cause of much lack of success. Given an enthusiastic teacher, 
knowing and loving literature, believing in its possibilities as a power 

*Adopte(i from report of Committee on Literature Bulletin, 1917, No. 2 — 
Bureau of Education, Wasliington. 



—59— 

for pleasure and profit in human life, eager to interpret its message to 
the youth before him, success may be acliieved whatever the course 
of study. The ideal teacher of literature is as much "called" to his 
work as tlie minister, as much "born" to it as the poet, and no electing 
to serve in this field can hope to succeed without special training, talent 
and love of the work. 

Careful Afmgmnefit of Each Lesson. — The school still has too much 
of the kind of English assignment that bids the class "read the next 
chapter" or "study the next two hundred lines," It is possible for the 
assignment of a literature lesson to be as definite and accurate as one in 
history or science, but it requires the same knowledge of values and the 
same careful planning of the work beforehand. Young readers of lit- 
erature must be taught what they are to look for — must be started on 
the right road. It is the undirected search that results in discourage- 
ment and failure, and presently in abandonment of the pursuit. 

The Teacher's Preparation of the Lesson. — A true pedagogy of Eng- 
lish teaching will lead, also, to a more careful consideration of the 
relative values of different pieces of literature. Before beginning the 
teaching of each classic or selection studied, the teacher should first ask 
himself such questions as the follomng: (1) What is the chief value 
in this piece of literature for the particular class of young people to 
whom it is to be given, and how must I treat it to bring this out? (2) 
What knowledge or experience of life has the author assumed on the 
part of his readers that these pupils lack and that is a necessary condi- 
tion of intelligent appreciation? (3) What was the intent, the mood, 
the spirit of the author — what emotion did he wish to arouse in the 
reader's mind? (4) How much of this shall I try to communicate 
to the class; hoAV much leave undeveloped? (5) What, if anything, 
has this work come to mean in the traditions of our race, and what 
value has this for the students ? Having settled these points in his own 
mind, the more difficult work remains of wording the lesson assign- 
ment. What questions can be asked that will inspire the pupil to search 
carefully in his study till he finds the answer^ — that the work has been 
faithfully done? For only so can the teacher hold the respect of his 
students. 

The Treatment of Poetry. — A better pedagogy of English teaching 
will result also in a decidedly different treatment of different types of 
literature. Poetry, especially the lyric, should be less exhaustively 
studied than other types. Close analytical treatment and a painstaking 
mastery of notes are ruinous to its spirit and sensuous appeal. The aim 
should be to awaken appreciation, and the teacher must help with the 
contagion of his own pleasure over its finest points of thought and style, 
and the inspiration resulting from his own sympathetic, interpretative 
reading. Short passages should be memorized after appreciation has 
been gained and carefully followed up by being frequently recalled to 
memory in association with other literature or experience. When pos- 
sible, lyric poetry should also be sung. 

The Treatment of Prose. — Fiction : In studying prose fiction, dis- 
crimination should be made between the rapidly moving tale, like "Treas- 



—60— 

Tire Island/' that one sits up half the night to finish, and the leisurely 
book like "Cranford" or "Vanity Fair," that is good to live with for a 
time. When an author has used every effort to eliminate the unessen- 
tial, to secure unity, suspense, quick movement, it is contrary to a real 
understanding of a book to potter over it for a month or two. Unless, 
therefore, the novels chosen are ver^^ long or discursive, or lend them- 
selves to much vital discussion of conduct and motive, pupils should be 
taught to read them in about the way people actually do read novels; 
that is, swiftly and chiefly for the interest of the plot and outcome. 
This is particulajly important in the early high school years. 

Tlie Treatment of Plays. — The method of reading plays should be 
sharply differentiated from that of reading novels. Pupils should be 
trained in the difficult intellectual exercise of visualizing the play as an 
acted thing, of holding the various characters visually before the imagi- 
nation. In getting the habit started there may be legitimate use for 
motion pictures here. A verbal setting of scenes, the dressing and 
placing of characters, imagining of gestures, facial expression, and tone 
of voice, will also help to make the characters and scenes real. Eeading 
in part, classroom presentation of scenes, or the production of simple 
plays like Lady Gregory's should also vivify and vitalize the work. 

The Treatment of the Essay.— The treatment of the essay should vary 
with the type. The study of personal essays should be very informal — 
largely the picking out of good bits, the learning of quotable sayings, 
the findings of side-lights on life and character. The study of the 
heavier ethical essay should be analytical, closely reasoned, and should 
lead to the expression of carefully weighed and tested opinion on the 
part of the pupil. A similar treatment should be given to the public 
speech. 

Some Suggested Methods for Enlivenrng Classroom Study of Litera- 
ture. — The old form of analyzing a piece of literature to tortured frag- 
ments is, we hope, fast passing away. 

1. Interpretative reading, in which the minds of all are actively en- 
gaged on the problem of how the thought of the writer can best be 
expressed. This is the only kind of reading aloud by students that is 
worth while. 

2. Discussion, necessitating some personal reaction, such as the for- 
mation of opinions on what has been read. This calls for skillful 
questioning on the part of the teacher. 

3. The sharing of information (resulting from library work, etc.), 
that throws light on the book being studied, or in some way enlarges 
the cultural background. 

4. Reports on supplementary reading, not perfunctory, but such as 
advertise to the class the book read. 

5. Practice in reading to one's self in the particular manner suited 
to a special book. This may be a "hooks open" exercise, based on definite 
directions from the teacher, and ending in some test of the efficiency 
with which they have been applied. 

6. Memorizing. — This should be definite and regular; a body of 
selected passages of high worth should be required in each year. Pas- 



—61— 

sages should not be long, but should be rigidly insisted upon. The 
habit of memorizing can in most cases be formed by practice, so that 
the task becomes easier ; and the result, a body of good verse and prose 
permanently in the mind, is perhaps the best thing pupils can get out 
of their study in English. 

7. Dramatizing. — This is a valuable exercise, especially in the ninth 
and tenth grades, as an aid in arousing interest and leading to more 
attentive reading and clearer visualization, though, in the j^resent highly 
stimulated state of all dramatic work, it is in danger of being overdone. 
It should not be used, however, unless the material has actual dramatic 
appeal. 

8. Home Reading. — This is very important because it is what the 
school is trying to train young people to do. It sliould include use of 
the public library, the care of a library card, learning to use the catalogue 
and the ordinary books of reference, drawing books for recreative read- 
ing. It should also include some guidance in book buying. Pupils 
ought to know that, through the "Everyman's Library" and other series, 
almost any really important book in literature can be had in attractive 
form for a price within the reach of all. There should be as much as 
possible of home reading under stimulating guidance, and of definite 
occasion provided for pupils to talk freely about what they read to their 
own choice. 

School Activities as Aids in Teaching Liteeatuee. 

1. The School Library. — This is as important to the English teacher 
as the laboratory is to the teacher of science. The library should be 
made the most beautiful room in the building, breathing an atmosphere 
of refinement and culture. The wise English teacher works hand in 
hand with the school librarian, informing her of her plans and desires 
for her students, and enlisting her ready cooperation. Many a skillful 
librarian, by her apparently chance comment in a seemingly idle moment, 
has enticed an unwilling student to a reading list when all but sheer 
force on the part of the teacher has failed. Eelations should be estab- 
lished with the nearest public library for loan coUactions of books and 
pictures. Acquaintance should also be made with the town librarian, 
especially where there is no school library, and her interest and coopera- 
tion enlisted. 

2. Literary Societies. — These flourish best away from large schools 
and centers of population. A little group of more thoughtful pupils, 
reading with an enthusiastic teacher, may derive a great deal of pleasure 
and profit. In rural schools, too small to support many societies, these 
may expand into a literary-dramatic school club, which, if carefully led, 
may do much for school and students alike. 

3- The Dramatic Chih. — The dramatic society and the school play 
may be either a great l)enefit to the school or a great nuisance. 

To secure the benefits and avoid the dangers of school dramatics, 
cooperation on the part of the teacher (preferably the English teacher) 
is necessary. But it should be cooperation, not arbitrary direction. The 
teacher should look upon the play as a sort of recreation in which she 



—62— 

and the pupils come together on a common ground, with a common 
interest in acting, and a common ambition for the honor of the school. 
She should be a source of suggestions, not of prescriptions; often a 
young teacher, fresh from college dramatics will be more successful than 
the more experienced "coach." She should put the play, from the start, 
frankly on the amateur basis, centering attention on character interpre- 
tation and feeling for the spirit of the play, rather than on professional 
technique; the actors must remain school boys and girls, not suggest a 
third rate road company. There should be an attempt made to include 
as many pupils as possible in the management of the annual play, and 
to raise the standard yearly in respect to literary value and imaginative 
treatment; otherwise the society's chief reason for being is not achieved. 

4. The School Paper. — School journalism is another form of student 
activity that may be a vital force for good in English work, and on this 
account deserves the friendly cooperation of some interested teacher. 



—63— 



THE SITUATION IN TEXAS 



CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH. 

1. According to the information listed in the Teachers' Directory 
of 1920-21, only fourteen sui^erintendents of classified or accredited 
schools teach English, and only sixty-five principals teach English. 

2. Of the four hundred and sixty schools so listed, three hundred 
and two English teachers receive the lowest, or as low a salary as is 
paid, in the high school faculty. 

3. In the year 1920-21, one hundred and eighty-four teachers with 
no previous experience in high school work, taught EngHsh classes in 
classified schools in Texas; and one hundred and forty-eight more 
English teachers taught in their respective schools for the first time. 

4. It is a matter of general observation that in schools requiring 
more than one teacher of English, "the head of the department" teaches 
only the advanced classes, leaving the eighth and ninth grade work to 
the junior teacher or teachers. 

Since thirty-six per cent of the students entering the high school in 
Texas drop out of school after the completion of the eighth grade, and 
since the eighth grade work is undeniably the foundation of all high 
school work, the State Department of Education will give close attention 
to the English classes of the eighth and ninth grades. Many schools 
have the idea that if the senior classes make a good appearance, the 
work of all the school should be judged thereby. Numbers of schools 
in sending materiaKfor exainination, offer only that from the eleventh 
grade when making application for credit for the fourth unit in English. 
As a matter of fact, the work of the eighth and ninth grades is consid- 
ered of more importance in determining the efficiency of the school than 
is the work of the tenth and eleventh grades, both by the supervisors 
and by the Committee on Classified and Accredited Schools. 

5. It is too often true that in the selection of the faculty, teachers 
who have specialized in science, in mathematics, in foreign languages, 
etc., Avill be chosen first: then, if the faculty is full, as to number, before 
the English chair is filled, the English classes are apportioned as inci- 
dentals to the experts in other branches— on the theory, obviously, that 
anybody can teach English. 

6. Th(;re is little systematic correlation of the English work of the 
primary grades with that of the grammar grades, and of the English 
courses of the grammar grades with those of the high school. 

7. In the majority of schools no allowance of time is made for the 
consultation with students and for the grading of English papers, when 
the superintendent assigns the duties of the English teacher along with 
the duties of the other high school teachers. The same number of reci- 
tation periods is assigned to the English teacher as to instructors in 
other branches. 

8. The burden of responsibihty for habits of correct English through- 
out the school is not shared by the other teachers of the faculty, but is 



—64— 

laid with glad relief at the door of the English teacher, A recent 
ruling by the Committee on Classified and Accredited Schools will dis- 
tribute this responsibility more equally throughout the faculty and will 
place upon the superintendent or principal the responsibility of seeing 
that good English is practiced throughout the school. This is as follows : 
"The supervisor of English may examine the material submitted in any 
subject from any high school, and if the fundamentals of English are not 
observed throughout the exhibit, may request the English department 
of that school to resubmit material from the English classes to deter- 
mine whether or not credit in English may be retained." Habits of 
using good English must be formed through the child's school life, be- 
ginning with the first grade. All the teachers in the entire school sys- 
tem who teach any branch of English should be under the direction of 
some supervisor or chairman who will make clear to each teacher ex- 
actly what steps in the j^rogress of primary and grammar grade English 
she is to be held res])onsible for. Eegular meetings, several times a 
year for the discussion of the teaching of English throughout the school 
would be of help to all. 

EVIDENCES OF UNFAVORABLE CONDITIONS. 

The results of these conditions are shown in the criticisms made from 
year to year on the material submitted for accrediting. The most com- 
mon of these are quoted below: 

(1) "The teacher herself makes glaring errors in the fundamentals 
of English; the papers are carelessly graded; the work is too elementary 
in nature; the outside readmg matter is insufficient; and the works 
listed as 'careful reading' are too elementary for the respective grades. 
Most glaring of all, however, is the fact that the teacher does not observe 
the fundamentals of English." 

(2) "Themes assigned to students are not assigned with regularity. 
'One theme from each assignment' does not give satisfactory indications. 

"The teacher' is not so painstaking as might be in grading of themes. 
Students have much to overcome in the way of diction and correct use 
of fundamentals. The teacher should assign themes regularly and 
grade them carefully." 

(3) "The quality of the course lacks much of measuring up to the 
standard required of fourth-unit schools. Evidently only one-half of the 
required amount of theme work has been done in the first two years — a 
condition which endangers the standing of the third unit. Examina- 
tion questions are too elementary in the tenth and eleventh grades." 

(4) "The library is insufficient to support the fourth unit in 
English. The teacher's qualifications are not high enough to support 
the fourth unit in English, especially since the same teacher does not 
plan to return next year. (See requirements for the fourth unit in 
English.) 

"The quality of the work throughout the exhibit is indicative of in- 
adequacy of library. The examiner recommends that the visitor from 
the department next year examine the English work in the grades care- 
fully." 

(5) "The foundation work in the elementary grades is evidently 



—65— 

very poor. The children are lacking in a working knowledge of the 
fundamentals, and the high school teacher has a very poor background 
to work with. 

"The teacher has failed to mark glaring errors in form, spelling, 
punctuation, sentence, and paragraph structure. The children should 
be provided with attractive, high standard books and a great deal of 
reading should be encouraged, in order to overcome the poverty of back- 
ground. is in danger of losing its two units if the quality 

of the English work is not improved next year." 

(6) "The course seems lacking in organization and purpose. The 
teacher seems not to have had clear objectives ; hence her methods seem 
aimless. Theme subjects are stereotyped and heavily drawoi from origi- 
nal sources. Neither form nor content of written work seem to have 
received much attention." 

(7) "The most glaring defects of the teaching are: the teacher's in- 
ability to determine the essentials of the course, her lax grading, and her 
very high grades for very mediocre work." 

(8) "The students show a lack of knowledge of use of the funda- 
mentals of English which renders it impossible to grant them the third 
unit in English. The spelling of even the advanced students is very 
weak. Sentence structure, observation of rules of capitalization and 
punctuation are lax. The reader advises that wide reading of such 
standard fiction as is listed on pp. 24-30 of Bulletin 91, be encouraged, 
since this and constant drilling of the fundamentals throughout the 
school are the shortest route to the acquiring of correct English." 

(9) "Some of the work is good, but the teacher is too careless in 
her grading for the committee to -feel justified in granting the third 
unit in English. Such carelessness, no doubt, accounts for the errors 
in the fundamentals that are so numerous in students' work. No re- 
vised themes were submitted." 

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT. 

In answer to the young or inexperienced teachers who are asking for 
general help and suggestions for the teaching of English, and especially 
on the teaching of eighth and ninth grade English, the writer of this 
bulletin would make the following suggestions : 

1. Know your subject matter. 

2. Know your text book. However poor, or inadequate, or gen- 
erally wrong you may consider it, KNOW it. Get the author's point of 
view. There may be good qualities in the text that you have not dis- 
covered. Make the most of these and supplement the text where neces- 
sary, that your work may not be hindered by its inadequacies. 

3. Know your students. 

(a) Understand their environment and do your best to get the point 
of view of their parents. 

■ (b) Gage their former training as accurately and as systematically 
as possible. Do not waste time in useless criticism, but base your work 
on their needs. It devolves upon you to teach them regardless of 
previous poor preparation. 

(c) Endeavor to gain a knowledge of the community in which you 



—66— 

work, of their ideas and ideals. Respect what is good, avoid criticising^ 
what is objectionable, and endeavor to iiiake attractive whatever of im- 
provement or help you may be able to offer, 

4. When you have gained a knowledge of people and conditions, 
determine your objective for each class, and drive straight toward it. 
In the bulletin on "Eeorganization of English in Secondary Schools," 
full statements of objectives for each grade are given. Familiarize your- 
self with these objectives. In this bulletin, an attempt is made to out- 
line the course of study for English in the high schools of Texas. This 
is only a condensation and application of the course determined upon 
by the National Joint Committee, but it may help you because of its 
closeness of range. You are not required to follow this slavishly, but 
to make use of it where you find it helpful. Do not measure your suc- 
cess by an absolute standard of perfection in your pupils, but by a 
relative standard of improvement and progress. You cannot in a few 
years overcome previous habits of a child's entire life ; but you can 
start him on the way to improvement, you can inspire him with a love 
of good reading, and you can instill in him the desire to speak good 
English. Do your best with your own training and natural ability to 
bring out the best that is in your classes. 

5. Outline your work carefully that you may know exactly day by 
day, week by week, term by term, what work you purpose to accomplish. 
Make definite assignments of lessons at. the beginning of the recitation 
each day, and be sure that each of these assignments gives sufficient 
work for a live recitation of forty-five minutes, 

6. Vitalize your subject matter. A mere cramming of facts into 
the mind does not develop the child. If you can develop in your pupils 
a love of reading and a habit of reading good literature, you will have 
accomplished for them the greatest service that any teacher can render 
to a pupil. From this habit will follow improvement of the vocabulary, 
greater ease in oral and written expression, unconscious improvement 
in sentence structure and grammatical forms, higher ideals of con- 
duct and thought, and more of pleasure and joy in life, 

7. Eemember that a sense of humor has saved many a day. Train 
your pupils to get all the joy that life affords, A wise old teacher once, 
said to her students, "Show me what a man laughs at and I'll tell you 
what he is," 

8. Remember that thirty-six per cent of your students probably will 
not continue in school again after the eighth grade. Do your best to 
make the work of this grade attractive, and to inspire the pupil with 
the desire to remain in school, and you can have a part in lowering this 
percentage and in raising the .standards, educationally, of Texas citizen- 
ship, 

THE FOURTH UNIT IN ENGLISH, 

Three units of credit in English are granted for four years' work in 
all schools not holding the fourth unit, though local credit may be 
granted for the four years' work. 

This does not mean that three years' work may gain three credits 
with the universities. It usually takes four years in the high school 
to do what could be done in three vears if all conditions were standard. 



—67— 

Eealizing that ph3^sical conditions largely determine the quality of Eng- 
lish work produced, the Committee on Classified and Accredited Schools 
has determined upon a list of requirements which must be met before 
a school is eligible to apply for the fourth unit, together with some 
stipulations concerning the quality of work which must be produced 
after the physical conditions are met. 

Eequirements. 

1. A well qualified teacher, preferably one who holds a degree. 

2. Some assurance that the teacher will be retained from year to 
year. 

3. A maximum of five classes per day. 

4. At least two periods per day for each teacher for consultation 
and grading of themes. 

5. Not more than 125 pupils for the teacher per day. 

6. An adequate library, containing ample references in English. 

7. Adequate teaching force in the lower grades. 

8. Completion of all the reading, both in class and outside of class, 
outlined in the state course of study. 

9. At least one written theme per week for the first two years, and 
one longer written theme every other week for the last two years. 

10. Attention to organized oral composition throughout the course. 

11. Constant attention throughout the four years to the fundamentals 
of English; especially, such as spelling, punctuation, rules of grammar, 
the basic rules of composition, correctness of form and neatness of any 
written work, and maturity of handwriting. 

12. A polish of diction which is to some degree indicative of culture 
and appreciation of the finer things of life. 

13. Written work of the fourth year submitted to the State Depart- 
ment must show strong evidence of the constant drilling referred to 
in No. 9. 

14. Schools securing the fourth unit are strongly advised to give it 
to those students only, whose English grade for the senior year is not 
lower than 80 and who show special strength in the fundamentals in 
English. In as much as some of the colleges are segregating the fourth 
unit students, especial care should be exercised in conferring this honor. 
Any complaint as to a working knowledge of the fundamentals would 
not only reflect upon the high school represented but also upon the 
judgment of the supervisors who are responsible for the granting of the 
fourth unit. 

MATERIAL TO BE SUBMITTED IN APPLICATION FOR 
AFFILIATION. 

What to Send. 

(1) Questions and one monthly t«st paper from each test in each 
class throughout year. 

(2) Questions and five examination papers from one term examina- 
tion from each class. 

(3) AH themes from one assignment in each class. 



—68— 

(4) One theme from each assignment in each class represented by 
different pupils. 

(5) Specimens of any other worthy material which the teacher may 
desire to send, 

Geneeal Information. 

(1) Second class high schools may secure two units of affiliation in 
English. 

(2) Any school, except one of the second class, which holds only 
two units of affiliation, must submit material every year in application 
for the third unit until that unit has been granted or until the two 
units have been cancelled at the discretion of the committee on affilia- 
tion. 

(3) At least two units of affiliation in English must be secured before 
units in any other subject in the high school can be recognized by the 
committee on aifiliation. 

(4) Not less than three units of affiliation will admit a student to 
the colleges and universities. 

(5) No school will be granted the fourth unit until it has held 
three units for at least one year. 

(6) Schools which alternate English and American Literature are 
eligible for three units in English, but not for the fourth. 

(7) Material from all four classes must be submitted in application 
for either the third or the fourth unit. 

(8) Any exhibit stands a better chance of gaining credit if it is neat 
in appearance, is logically arranged, and is sent all in one package at 
the stipulated time. 



—69— 



SUGGESTED LIST FOR ENGLISH DEPARTMENT LITERATURE 



In ordering books for the school library it is well to avoid the puffed 
and padded presentation copies prepared especially for those afflicted 
with the Christmas gift mania. A good book, however, deserves a good 
binding, and in any case should be a fair specimen of the typographer's 
art. Even when the school funds are limited there should be a few 
handsome books, for such volumes possess a worth similar to that of a 
good picture. Ordinarily, too, when money is not plentiful, one should 
avoid buying the complete works of many authors and should be satis- 
fied Av^ith making a judicious selection from the writings of each. 
Usually it is cheaper and more convenient to deal with some large book 
concern than to order directly from the publishers. Most of these 
houses allow a special discount to school libraries. It is usually well 
to specify how shipments are to be made. Freight charges are lower, 
of course, than express; but the cost of transportation from the depot 
to the school is avoided when packages or boxes come by express. 

The list arranged below does not contain all the books that may be 
used with advantage in a high school library, but is included ^Wth the 
hope that it will suggest some of those most essential and most suited 
to schools of limited means. It is supplemented in Bulletin 91, State 
Department of Education, Austin, Texas, and by the Package Library 
Department, University of Texas. 

BOOKS EECOMMEiNTDED FOR THE HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH 

LIBRAEY.* 

Eefeeence Books. 

Dictionaries and E^irj/cJnpedias. 

Webster's New international dictionary. Eev. ed. Springfield 
(Mass.). 1909. $12. Merriam. 

New international encvclopedia. Ed. 2. 24 v. N. Y. Dodd. 1914. 
$138.t 

tSchooIs can usually obtain a discount. 

Classical Antiquities. 

Harper's dictionary of classical literature and antiquities. Ed. by 
H. T. Peck. N. Y. A. B. C. $6. 

Quotaiinns and Alhisions. 

Brewer. E. C. Reader's handbook of allusions, references, plots and 
stories. New ed. Philadelphia. Lippincott. $3.50. 

*Compiled largely from the following sources: Wilson, Martha. Library 
Books for High Schools. Government Printing Office, Washington; Fay. Lucy E., 
and Eaton, Anne T. The Use of Books and Libraries. The F. W. Faxon Company, 
Boston. Tlie prices quoted are for 1919. 



—70— 

Literature. 

Chamber's cyclopedia of English literature. New ed. 3 v. Phila- 
delphia. Lippincott. $12. 

Clark, S. H. Handbook of best readings. iST. Y. Scribner. $1.25. 
(Contains both prose and poetry.) 

Newcomer and Andrews. Twelve centuries of English poetry and 
prose. Chicago. Scott Foresmaii. 

Newcomer, Andrews and Hall. Three centuries of American poetry 
and prose. Chicago. Scott Foresman. 

Payne, L. W. Selections from American literature. N. Y. Eand- 
McNally. 

Stedman, E. C, conip. American anthology. Boston. Houghton. $3. 

Ward, T. H., ed. English poets : selections. 5 v. N. Y. Macmillan. 
$1.10 each. 

Rich, Mabel. Types of literature. N. Y. Century. 

Language. 

Crabbe, George. English synonyms. Centennial ed. N. Y. Har- 
per. $1. " 

Fernald, J. C. English synonyms and antonyms. Funk & Wagnalls, 

Mythology. 

Gayley, C. M., ed. Classic myths in English literature and in art, 
based originally on Bulfinch's "Age of fable." Ginn. $1.50. 

Guerber, Helene A. Myths of the northern lands. American Bk. 
Co. $1.50. 

Griffith, Alice Mary Matlock. The stars and their stories. Holt. 
$1.25. 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Wonder-book, and Tanglewood tales; illus. 
by E. P. Abbot and N. A. Knipe. Jacobs. (Washington Square 
classics.) $1.25. 

Mabie. H. W. Norse stories; retold from the Eddas; ed. by K. L. 
Bates. Rand. 40 cents. 

Folklore and Legends. 

Baldwin, James. Storv of Roland. Scribner. (Heroes of the olden 
time.) $1.50. 

Carroll, Lewis, pseud. Alice's adventures in wonderland ; illus. by 
Arthur Rackham. Doubledaj. $2. 

Chapin, A. A. Wonder tales from Wagner. Harper. $1.25. 

Harris, J. C. Uncle Remus, his songs and his sayings. Appleton. 
$2.25. 

Macleod, Mary. The book of King Arthur and his noble knights ; 
from Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur. Stokes. $1.50. 

Pyle, Howard. Merry adventures of Robin Hood, of great renown in 
Nottinghamshire. Scribner. $3. 

Skinner, C. M. Myths and legends of our own land. 2 v. Lippin- 
cott $3. 



—71— 

Helps for Debates. 

Brookings, W. D, and Kingwalt, E. C. Briefs for debate. N. Y. 
X/ongmans. $1.25. 

Robert, J. T. Primer of parliamentary law for schools. N. Y.. 
Doubleday.' 75 cents. 

Shurter, E. D. How to debate. N. Y. Harper's. $1.35. 

Periodicals. 

Atlantic monthly. Mo. $4. Boston. Of real value in school work, 
l)ecause of its high and sensible standard for essay and story. 

Boy's life. Mo. $1. New York. Official Boy Scouts magazine. 
Wholesome. 

Century magazine. Mo. $4. New York. Pupils should become ac- 
quainted with periodicals of this type. 

Current events. W. 40 cents. Chicago. Useful summary. 

English journal. Mo. $2.50. Chicago. Extremely useful for teach- 
ers of English, especially in secondary schools. 

Harper's monthly. Mo. $4. New York. Another well-edited period- 
ical useful in school work. 

Literary digest. W. $3. New York. Popular and useful in school 
■work. 

The Pathfinder. W. $1. Washington. 

Saint Nicholas. Mo. $3. New York. Deservedly popular with 
■children, 

Scribner's magazine. Mo. $3. New York. Has an enviable record 
for excellence of short stories and general material. Teachers may well 
•encourage periodicals like Atlantic, Century, Harper, and Scribners as 
wholesome antidotes for the popular sort. 

Youth's companion. W. $2. Boston. One of the oldest and most 
popular papers for young people. 

General Collection. 
Biograpliy. 

Plutarch. Lives. (Everyman's lib.). N. Y. Button. Reinforced 
"binding. $1.80. 

Yonge, C. M. Book of golden, deeds. (Everyman's lib.). N. Y. 
Button. Reinforced binding. 60 cents. 

Lives of Individuals. 

Cheney, Mrs. E. B. L., ed. Louisa May Alcott, her life, letters and 
journals. Boston. Little. $1.50. 

Antin, Mary. The promised land. Boston. Houghton. $1.75. Auto- 
biography of a Russian immigrant. 

Bok, Edward. A Butch bov fiftv years after. N. Y. Scribner. 

Meadowcroft, W. H. Boy's life 'of Edison. N. Y. Harper. $1.25. 

Pranklin. Benjamin. His life AVTitten by himself, condensed for school 
use by B. H. Montgomery. Boston. Ginn. 40 cents. 



— 7S— 

Lodge, H. C. Alexander Hamilton. (American statesmen.) Bos- 
ton. Houghton. $1.25. 

Morse, J. T. Thomas Jefferson. (American statesmen). Boston. 
Houghton. $1.25. 

Keller, Helen. Story of my life. N. Y. Doubleday. $1.50. 

White, H. A. Robert E. Lee and the Southern confederacy. (Heroes 
of the nations). N. Y. Putnam. $1.50. 

Morse, J. T. Abraham Lincoln. 2 v. (American statesmen.) Bos- 
ton. Houghton. $2.50. 

Richards, Mrs. L. E. Florence Nightingale. N. Y. Appleton. $1.35. 

Palmer, G. H. Life of Alice Frcmman Palmer. Boston. Houghton. 
$1.50. 

Riis, Jacob. Making of an American. (Macm. standard library.) 
N. Y. Macmillan. 50 cents. 

Lockhart, J. G. Life of Sir Walter Scott. (Everyman's library.) 
N. Y. Button. Reinforced binding. GO cents. 

Scudder, H. E. George Washington. (Riverside library for young- 
people.) Boston. Houghton. 75 cents. 

Liternry Historij and Criticism. 

Close, Edward. Story of the alphabet. (Library of useful stories.) 
N. Y. Appleton. 60 cents. 

Lounsburv, T, R. Historv of the Ehghsh language. New ed. Holt. 
$1.25. 

Moody, W. V. and Lovett, R. M. Historv of English literature. Rev. 
ed. N. Y. Scribner. $1.35. 

Painter. Elementary guide to literary criticism, Boston. Ginn. 

Perry, Bliss. Study of prose fiction. Boston. Houghton. $1.35. 

Pancoast, H. S. Introduction to American literature. N. Y. Holt. 
$1.12. 

Stedman, E. C. Poets of America. Boston. Houghton. $2.50. 

Stedman, E. C. Victorian poets. Rev. ed. Boston. Houghton. 
$2.50. 

Jameson, Mrs. A. B. M. Shakespeare's heroines. N. Y. Macmillan. 
$1.75. (Bohn library.) 

Matthews, Brander. Development of the drama. N. Y. Scribner. 
$1.25. 

Cross, W. L. Development of the English novel. New ed. N. Y. 
Macmillan. $1.60. 

Laing, G. J., ed. Masterpieces of Latin literature. Boston. Hough- 
ton. $1.50. 

Wright, J. H., ed. Masterpieces of Greek literature. Boston. Hough- 
ton. $1.50. 

Orations. 

Burke, Edmund. Speech on American taxation, with speech On Con- 
ciliation with America; Letter to the sheriff of Bristol, ed. by F. G. 
Selby. (English classics.) N. Y. Macmillan. 70 cents. 

Cody, Sherwin, ed. Selections from the world's greatest orations. 
Ed. 6^ Chicago. McClurg. $1. 



—73— 

Gauss. Present day democracy. 

Lincoln, Abraham. Gettysburg address and Bunker Hill oration and 
other papers; with Carl Schurz's Abraham Lincoln. Boston. Hough- 
ton. 44 cents. 

Wilson, Woodrow. In our first year of war; messages and addresses 
to Congress and the people. N. Y. Harper. $1. 

Poeiry. 

Bryant, W. C. Poetical works. N. Y. Appleton. $1.50. 

Chaucer, Geoffrey. Canterbury tales. (Everyman's library.) N. Y. 
Button. Reinforced binding. 60 cents. 

Emerson, R. W. Poems and essays. (Riverside literature ser.) Bos- 
ton. Houghton. 44 cents. 

Holmes, 0. W. Complete poetical works. (Household ed.) Boston. 
Houghton. $1.50. 

Homer. Iliad, tr. into blank verse by W. C. Bryant. (Student's ed.) 
Boston. Houghton. $1.50. 

Homer. Odyssey, tr. into prose by W. C. Bryant. Boston. Hough- 
ton. $1.25. 

Kipling, Rudyard. Collected verse. N. Y. Doubleday. $2. 

Lanier, Sidney. Select poems, ed. by Morgan Callaway, Jr. N. Y'. 
Scribner. $1. 

Longfellow, H. W. Complete poetical works. (Cambridge ed.) Bos- 
ton. Houghton. $2. 

Lowell, J. R. Complete poetical works. (Cambridge ed.) Boston. 
Houghton. $2. 

Macaulay, T. B. Lays of ancient Rome and other poems; and Lays 
of the Scottish cavaliers by W. E. Aytoun. Boston. Houghton. 50 
cents. 

Masefield, John. The story of a round-house and other poems. IST. 
Y. Macmillan. $1.30. 

Noyes, Alfred. Collected poems. 2 v. N. Y. Stokes. $3. 

Poe, E. A. Poems; ed. by Killis Campbell. Boston. Ginn. $1.50. 

Stevenson, R. L. Poems. (Biographical ed.) N". Y. Scribner. 
$1.20. 

Tennyson, Alfred. Complete poetical works. (Household ed.) Bos- 
ton. Houghton. $1.50. 

Virgil. Aeneid, tr. into English verse by John Conington. N, Y. 
Longmans. $1. 

"Whittier, J. G. Complete poetical works. (Cambridge ed.) Boston. 
Houghton. $2. 

Wordsworth, William. Complete poetical works. 

Poetry — Collections. 

Bates, K. L., ed. Ballad book. Boston. Sibley. 60 cents. 

Clarke, G. H., ed. A treasury of war poetry. British and American 
poems of the world war, 1914-1917. Boston. Houghton. $L25. 

Palgrave, F. T., ed. Golden treasury. Rev. and enl. ed. (Golden 
treasury ser.) N. Y. Macmillan. $1. 



—74— 

Wiggin, Mrs, K. D., and Smith, N. A. Golden numbers, a book of 
verse for youth. N. Y. Doubleday. $3, 

Payne, L. W. Southern literary readings. N. Y. Eand-McNally. 

Drama. 

Peabody, Mrs. J. P. The piper. Boston. Houghton. $1.50. 

Lamb, Charles and Mary, Tales from Shakespeare. Oxford. Claren- 
don Press. 75 cents. 

Shakespeare, William. Plays in the Rolfe ed. IST. Y, American Bk. 
Co. 56 cents each. 

Shakespeare, William. Plays in the Hudson ed. Chicago. Ginn and 
Co. 40 cents each. 

Maeterlinck. The blue bird. 

Essays. 

Bacon^rancis. Essays, ed. by C. S. Northrup. (Riverside literature 
ser.) Boston. Houghton. 55 cents. 

Benson, A. C. From a college window. N. Y. Putnam. $1.50. 

Carlyle, Thomas. Sartor Resartus; and On heroes and hero worship 
and the heroic in history. (Everyman's library.) N. Y. Dutton. Re- 
inforced binding. 60 cents. 

Curtis, G. W. Prue and I and Lotus-eating. (Everyman's library.) 
N. Y. Dutton. Reinforced binding. 60 cents. 

Emerson, R. W. English traits: Representative men and other es- 
says. (Everyman's library.) N. Y. Dutton. Reinforced binding. 
60 cents. 

Heydrick. Types of the essay. N. Y. Scribner. 

Holmes, 0. W. Autocrat of the breakfast table. (Everyman's library.) 
N. Y. Dutton. Reinforced binding. 60 cents. 

Irving, Washington. Sketch book. (Everyman's library.) N. Y. 
Dutton. Reinforced binding. 60 cents. 

Lamb, Charles. Essays of Eli a. (Everyman's library.) N. Y. Dut- 
ton. Reinforced binding. 60 cents. This includes the First and Last 
Essays of Elia. 

Macaulay, T. B, Critical and historical essays. 3 v. (Everyman's 
library.) N. Y. Dutton. Reinforced binding. $1.20. 

Ruskin, John. Sesame and lilies. (Everyman's library.) N. Y. 
Dutton. Reinforced binding. 60 cents. 

Sandwick, R. L. How to study. Chicago. Heath. 

Thoreau, H. D. Walden. (Everyman's library.) N. Y, Dutton. 
Reinforced binding. 60 cents. 

Van Dyke, Henry. Fisherman's luck. N". Y. Scribner. $2. 

Warner, C. D. In the wilderness. Boston. Houghton. $1. 

Fiction. 

Alcott, L. M. Little Women. Boston. Little. $L35. 
Aldrich, T. B. Marjorie Daw and other people. (Cambridge classics.) 
Boston. Houghton. $L 

Allen, J. L. Kentucky cardinal. Macmillan. $1. 



.-75— 

Austen, Jane, Pride and prejudice. (Everyman's library.) N. Y. 
Button, Eeinforced binding. 60 cents, 

Austin, Mrs. Jane. Standish of Standish. Boston, Houghton, $1.25. 

Bacheller, Irving. Ebeii Holden. Grosset. 75 cents. 

Barrie, J. M. Sentimental Tommy. Scribner. $1.50. 

Barrie, J. M. Peter and Wendy. N. Y. Scribner. $1.50. 

Bennett, Arnold. Buried alive. Doran. 75 cents. 

Black, William. Judith Shakespeare. N. Y. Harper. $1.35. 

Blackmore, E. D. Lorna Doone. N. Y. Jacobs. $1.50. 

Bronte, C. M. Jane Eyre. (Everyman's library.) N. Y. Button. 
Eeinforced binding. 60 cents. 

Brown, Alice. Meadow-grass. Houghton. $1.35. 

Brown, John. Eab and his friends, and other stories of dogs. Heath. 
20 cents. 

Cable, G. W. Old Creole days. N. Y. Scribner. $1.50. 

Bunyan, John. Pilgrim's progress; illus. by Ehead brothers. IST. Y. 
Century. $1.75. May also be had in Everyman's library. Eeinforced 
binding. 60 cents. 

Cervantes, Saavedra Miguel de. History of Don Quixote de la Mancha, 
tr. by P. E. Motteux. (Everyman's library.) 2 v. N. Y. Button. 
Eeinforced binding. $1.20. 

Churchill, Winston. The crisis. N. Y. Grosset. 75 cents. Mac- 
millan's $1.50 ed. is preferable. 

Churchill, Winston. Eichard Carvel. IST. Y. Grosset. 75 cents. 

Connor, Ealph. Black rock. Chicago. Eevell. $1.25. 

Cooper, J. F. Last of the Mohicans, illus. by E. B. Smith. N. Y. 
Holt. $1.35. 

Cooper, J. F. The deerslayer. Boston. Houghton. $1. Also in 
Everyman's library. IST. Y'. Button. Eeinforced binding. 60 cents. 

Cooper, J. F. Pathfinder. Boston. Houghton. $1. Also in Every- 
man's library. 60 cents. 

Cooper, J. F. Pilot. Boston. Houghton. $1. Also in Everyman's 
library at 60 cents. 

Cooper, J. F. Pioneers. Boston. Houghton. $1. Also in Every- 
man's library. 60 cents. 

Cooper, J. F. Prairie. Boston. Houghton. $1. Also in Every- 
man's library. 60 cents. 

Cooper, J. F. Spy. Boston. Houghton. 52 cents. 

Bavis, W. S. Friend of Caesar. N". Y. Macmillan. $1.50. 

BeFoe, Baniel. Eobinson Crusoe, illus. by E. B. Smith. Boston. 
Houghton. $1.50. Or illus. by Ehead brothers. Eussell. $1.50. 

Beland, Mrs. M. W. Br. Lavendar's people. Grosset. 75 cents. 

BeMorgan, William. Joseph Vance. Grosset. 75 cents. 

Bickens, Charles. Christmas books. Boston. Houghton. $2. Also 
in Everyman's library. 60 cents. 

Bickens, Charles. Bleak house. Boston. Houghton. $2. Also in 
Everyman's library. 60 cents. 

Bickens, Charles. Bavid Copperfield. Boston. Houghton. $2. Also 
in Everyman's library. 60 cents. 

Bickens, Charles. Bombey and son. Boston. Houghton. $2^ Also 
in Everyman's library. 60 cents. 



/ 

—76— 

Dickens, Charles. Martin Chuzzlewit. Boston. Houghton. $2. Also 
in Everyman's library. 60 cents. 

Dickens, Charles. Pickwick papers. Boston. Houghton. $2. Also 
in Everyman's library. 60 cents. 

Dickens, Charles. Nicholas Nickleby. Boston. Houghton. $2. Also 
in Everyman's library. 60 cents. 

Dickens, Charles. Old curiosity shop. Boston. Houghton. $2. Also 
in Everyman's library. 60 cents. 

Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. Boston. Houghton. $2. Also in 
Everyman's library. 60 cents. 

Dickens, Charles. Tale of two cities. Boston. Houghton. $2. Also 
in Everyman's library. 60 cents. 

Doyle, Sir A. C. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. N. Y. Harper. 
$1.40^ Or Grosset. 76 cents. 

Doyle, Sir A. C. White Company. X. Y. Burt. $1. 

Dumas, Alexander. Count of Monte Christo. Everyman's library. 
2 V. N. Y. Dutton. Reinforced binding. $1.20. 

*The Houghton edition is illustrated by Cruikshank, Leecha and 
others. 

Dumas, Alexander. The three musketeers. (Everyman's library.) 
N. Y. Dutton. 60 cents. 

Eliot, George. Adam Bede. (Ever3anan's library.) IST. Y. Dutton, 
Reinforced binding. 60 cents; or Boston. Little. $1.25. 

Eliot, George. Mill on the floss. (Everyman's library.) N. Y. Dut- 
ton. Reinforced binding. 60 cents; or Boston. Little. $1.25. 

EHot, George. Romola. (Everyman's library.) N. Y. Dutton. Re- 
inforced binding. 60 cents; or Boston. Little. $1.25. 

Eliot, George. Silas Marner. (Everyman's library.) N. Y. Dutton. 
Reinforced binding. 60 cents; or Boston. Little. $1.25. 

Farnol, Jeffery. Amateur gentleman. Little. $1.40. 

Ford, P. L. Hon. Peter Stirling. Holt. $1.50. 

Ford, P. L. Janice Meredith. Grosset. 75 cents. 

Fox, John, Jr. Little shepherd of Kingdom Come. Grosset. 75 
cents. 

Freeman, Mrs. M. E. W. Few England nun and other stories. N. Y. 
Harper. $1.25. 

Gaskell, Mrs. E. C. S. Cranford. N. Y. Macmillan. $1.50. Also 
in Everyman's library. Reinforced binding. 50 cents. 

Goldsmith, Oliver. Vicar of Wakefield. (Everyman's library.) N. 
Y. Dutton. Reinforced binding. 60 cents. More attractive is the 
Cranford edition, illustrated by Hugh Thomson and published by Mac- 
millan at $1.50. 

Hale, E. E. Man without a countrv. (National ed.) Boston. Lit- 
tle. 30 cents. 

Hardy, Thomas. Far from the madding crowd. Harper. $1.25. 

Harrison, H. S. Queed. Grosset. 75 cents. 

Harte, Bret. Luck of Roaring Camp and other stories. Boston. 
Houghton. $1.50. 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Twice-told tales. (Wayside ed.) Boston. 
Houghton. $1. 



—77— 

Hawthorne, JSTathaniel. House of the seven gables. (Wayside ed.) 
Boston. Houghton. $1. 

Howells, W. D. Rise of Silas Lapham. (Riterside literature ser.) 
Boston. Houghton. 64 cents. 

Hugo, Victor. Les miserables. (Everyman's library.) 2 v. N". Y. 
Button. Reinforced binding. $1.20. 

Jackson, Mrs. H. F. M. H. Ramona. Boston. Little. $1.50. 

Johnson, Owen. Stover at Yale. N. Y. Stokes. $1.35. 

Johnson, Mary. To have and to hold. Grosset. 75 cents. 

King, Charles. Cadet days. Harper. $1.40. 

Kipling, Rudyard. Captains courageous. X. Y. Century. $1.50. 

Kipling, Rudyard. Jungle book. N, Y. Century. $1.50. 

Kipling, Rudvard. Kim. Doubleday. $1.50. 

Kipling, Rudyard. Light that failed. N. Y. Doubleday. $1.50. 

KipHng, Rudvard. Plain tales from the hills. N. Y. Doubleday. 
$1.50. 

Kipling, Rudyard. Second jungle book. X. Y. Doubleday. $1.50. 

London, Jack. Call of the wild. Grosset. 75 cents. 

Lytton, E. G. L. Bulwer-Lytton. Last days of Pompeii. N". Y. 
Crowell. $1.50. Also in Everyman's library at 60 cents. 

Masefield, John. Jim Davis. N. Y. Stokes. $1.25. 

Mitchell, S. W. Hugh Wynne. 2 v. Century. $1.50. 

OUivant, Alfred. Bob son of battle. N. Y. ' Doubleday. $1.35. 

Page, T. N. In ole Virginia. N. Y. Scribner. $1.35. 

Page, T. N. Red rock. N. Y. Scribner. $1.50. 

Poe, E. A. Tales of mystery and imagination. (Everyman's library.) 
]^. Y. Dutton. Reinforced binding. 60 cents. 

Post, W. K. Harvard stories. N. Y. Putnam. $1.25. 

Porter,' W. S. Cabbages and kings, by 0. Henry (pseud.). Burt. 
75 cents. 

Porter, W. S. Four million, by 0. Henry (pseud.). Burt. 75 cents. 

Pyle, Howard. Men of iron. ^ N. Y. Harper. $2. 

Pyle, Howard. Merry adventures of Robin Hood. 'N. Y. Scribner. 
$3.00. 

Reade, Charles. Cloister and the hearth. (Everyman's library.) N. 
Y. Dutton. Reinforced binding. 60 cents. 

Rice, Alice Hegan. Mrs. Wiggs of the cabbage patch; also Lovey 
Mary (sequel). N. Y. Century. $1. 

Roberts, C. D. G. Haunters of the silences, a book of animal life. 
Boston. Page. $2. 

Scott, Sir Walter. Bride of Lammermoor. Boston. Houghton. $1. 
Also in Everyman's library at 60 cents. 

Scott, Sir Walter. Guy Mannering. Boston. Houghton. $1. Also 
in Everyman's library at 60 cents. 

Seott, Sir Walter. Heart of Midlothian. Boston. Houghton. $1. 
Also in Everyman's library at 60 cents. 

Scott, Sir Walter. Ivanhoe. Illus. by E. B. Smith. Boston. Hough- 
ton. $2.50. Also in Everyman's library at 60 cents. 

Scott, Sir Walter. Kenilworth. Illus. by H. J. Ford. Phil. Lippin- 
cott. $2. Houghton. $1. Also in Everyman's library at 60 cents. 



—78— 

Scott, Sir Walter. Quentin Durward. Boston. Houghton. . $1. Also 
in Everyman's library at 60 cents. 

Scott, Sir Walter. Rob Eoy. Boston. Houghton. $1. Also in 
Everyman's library at 60 cents. 

Scott, Sir Walter. The talisman. Illus. by S. H. Vedder. Phil. 
Lippincott. $2. Houghton. $1. Also in Everyman's library at 60 
cents. 

Scott, Sir Walter. Waverly. Boston. Houghton. $1. Also in 
Ever3^man's library at 60 cents. 

Se'ton, E. Thompson. Wild animals I have known. N. Y. Scrib- 
ner. $2. 

Stevenson, B. L. David Balfour. N. Y. Scribner. $1.20. 

Stevenson, E. L. KidnapiDcd. N. Y. Scribner. $1.20. 

Stevenson, E. L. Treasure Island. N. Y. Scribner. $1.20. 

Stockton, F. E. Casting away of Mrs. Leeks and Mrs. Aleshine. N. 
Y. Century. $1.50. 

Stockton, F. E. The lady or the tiger. N. Y. Scribner. $1.25. 

Stuart, Mrs. E. M. Story of Babette, a little Creole girl. Harper, 
$1.50. 

Tarkington, Booth. Penrod and Penrod and Sam. 

Tarkington, Booth. Monsieur Beaucaire. N. Y. Doubleday. $1.20. 

Tarkington, Booth. The gentleman from Indiana. 

Thackeray, W. M. Henry Esmond. Boston. Houghton. $1.50. AlsO' 
in Everyman's library at 60 cents. 

Thackeray, W. M. The jSTewcomes. Boston. Houghton. $1.50. Also 
in Everyman's library at 60 cents. 

Thackeray, W. M. Pendennis. Boston. Houghton. $1.50. Also in 
Everyman's library. 2 v. at $1.20. 

Thackeray, W. M. The rose and the ring. N. Y. Macmillan. 50' 
cents. 

Thackeray, W. M. A^anity Fair. Boston. Houghton. $1.50. Also 
in Everyman's library at 60 cents. 

Thackeray, W. M. The Virginians. Boston. Houghton. $1.50. Also- 
in Everyman's library at 60 cents. 

Twain, Mark. Dog's tale. N. Y. Harper. $1. 

Twain, Mark. Huckleberry Finn. Js^, y. Harper. $1.75. 

Twain, Mark. The prince and the pauper. N. Y. Harper. $1.75. 

Twain, Mark. Tom Sawyer. N. Y. Harper. .$1.75. 

Vaile, Mrs. C. M. The Orcutt girls; or, One term at the academy.. 
Boston. Wilde. $1.35. 

Van Dyke, Henry. Blue flower. Scribner. $1.25. 

Van Dyke, Henry, The unknown quantity. 

Verne, Jules, Around the world in eighty days. Burt. 75 cents.. 

Wallace, Lew. Ben Hur. X. Y. Harper. $1.40. 

Wallace, Lew. The Fair God. 

Webster, Jean. Dear enemy. Grosset. 75 cents. 

Webster, Jean. Daddy-long-legs. Grosset. 75 cents. 

Wells, H. G. Mr. Britling sees it through, Macmillan. $1.50. 

Westcott, E. N". David Harum. Grosset. 75 cents. 



—79— 

Wiggins, Mrs. K. D. Cathedral courtship and Penelope's English 
experience. Boston. Houghton. $1. 

Wiggins, Mrs. K. D. Rebecca of Sunnybrook farm. Boston. Hough- 
ton. >1.50. 

Williams, J. L. Adventures of a freshman. N. Y. Scribner. $1.25. 

Wister, Owen. The Virginian. N. Y. Macmillan. $1.50. 



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